About Us

We are a consortium of more than 2000 organisations from 54 African countries that brings together a diverse membership drawn from Grassroots, Community-based organizations, Faith-based Organizations, Non-Governmental organizations, Trusts, Foundations, Indigenous Communities, Farmers and Pastoralist Groups with a shared vision to advance a people-centered, right-based, just and inclusive approach to address climate and environmental challenges facing humanity and the planet.

PACJA’s tremendous growth of membership and mandate has necessitated a rethink of its governance, which seeks to accord more role to its base at sub-national/national level, through establishment of National Platforms that will henceforth serve as Pillars of action in countries and sub-national levels. This is consistent with the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030, which underscores the role of people and local communities in the achievement of their stated goals.

A robust, bottom-up approach which strengthens the voices of those at the frontline of the climate crisis – smallholder farmers, pastoralist communities, rural women, fisherfolk, forest communities, Small and micro, social enterprises (SMEs), people living with disabilities, the aged, etc. – who form the bedrock of PACJA membership, informs the Alliance interventions at all levels. In light of this, PACJA’s current strategic focus aims at building strong National/Sub-national Platforms with well-defined criteria which emphasizes mandatory consideration of sectoral, language and territorial diversity in their membership and governance.

Currently, PACJA is implementing a variety of Projects that traverse direct programming, policy and advocacy, sub-granting and capacity building, mainly focusing on the most vulnerable groups which are “unreachable” in traditional development paradigms. The Alliance plays a central role in key African processes spearheaded by African Union, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and African Development Bank (AfDB), among them, the flagship Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev) Programme.

The Alliance also supports several governments through its national Platforms, in addition to other key actors such as media, parliamentarians and sector-based networks through targeted and dedicated initiatives tailor-made for respective stakeholders groups. PACJA is successfully implementing a 10-country sub-grant Project supported by the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which aims to build capacity of forest communities on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Forest Degradation and Deforestation in Developing Countries). It’s also receiving another stream of funding to sub-grant communities in various countries, including Kenya, to mobilize and strengthen networking for resilience building and adaptation to climate change impacts.

Among other key Sectoral and thematic initiatives catalyzed, facilitated and supported by PACJA include the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA), United Cities and Local Government Africa (UCLG-Africa) taskforce on Climate Change, African Climate Legislation Initiative (ACLI), Pan African Media Alliance on Climate Change (PAMACC), the Pentagonal Consortium on Agenda 2030 and the African Working Group on gender and Climate Change (AWGGCC). The Alliance has forged collaborations with like-minded governmental and non-governmental partners in both North and South to establish initiatives to advance their shared vision in international development discourses, and particularly in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, Agenda 2063 of the African Union and UN’s Agenda 2030..

To support its activities, PACJA’s main financial funding is provided by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the World Bank. Other partners, such as German’s GIZ and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) supports specific Projects and Initiatives directly or through intermediaries. Oxfam International, Christian Aid, Trocaire, Open Society Foundations, Diakonia, and SNV also work with PACJA in specific sector-based Projects, campaigns and initiatives at in Counties, national or regional levels.

PACJA’s visibility and transformational story in Africa rests on its theory of change, premised on the belief that the realization of environmental and climate justice – and the relevant human rights provisions that such justice affirms – will only be achieved if governments recognize these rights to justice and respond with necessary policies, resources and action to meet the needs and aspirations of their citizens with respect to environmental threats and opportunities.

The capacity of citizens to articulate such needs and aspirations, and their access to decision-making processes, is too often constrained by lack of knowledge and restrictive government procedures and modalities. Effective community participation and intervention can bridge these constraints by amplifying the voice of citizens to their governments