Background
African countries contribute less than 4% to global emissions but bear the brunt of their impacts. Climate change is impeding Africa’s long-term sustainable development and poses an immediate threat to its people, creating conflict and destroying lives and livelihoods from the shores of Senegal to the Savannah of Kenya. Therefore, countries must join forces to push for bold commitments at global, regional, sub-national, and deep community and sectoral/thematic levels, to help combat the worst impacts of climate change and create space for African innovation and development. The IPCC reports put the current state of Africa in context. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) Sixth Assessment Report 6, by 2030, more than 250 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa could face water shortages, and rain-fed agriculture could contract by 50% in some African countries. Pointedly, these predictions are not waiting to happen in 2030, but are vividly observable now, wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of the people.
The ND-GAIN 2018 index indicated that 30 out of the world›s 40 most climate-vulnerable countries are in Africa, putting local populations at high risk of severe climate events impacting their health and well-being as well as the productivity of the economy. There is an urgent developmental challenge with the potential to derail progress toward achieving all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. From Morocco to Kenya, the poor, and especially women and children, are the hardest hit by the impact of climate change as they rely on natural resources and ecosystems for their livelihoods. Regardless of the above, reports by Kenya’s National Treasury and Planning in 2021, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) in 2022, and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in 2021 indicated that Africa needs approximately USD 2.8 trillion, or USD 250 billion each year, between 2020 and 2030, to implement its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The CPI report indicated that the total annual climate finance flows into Africa for financial 2020 from domestic and international sources, was only USD 30 billion, just 12% of the amount needed. The financing gap is significant as all African countries together have a GDP of USD 2.4 trillion (World Bank 2021), implying that 10% of Africa’s current annual GDP needs to be mobilized above and beyond current flows every year for the next 10 years. This analysis is based on 51 out of 53 African countries that provided data on the costs of implementing their NDCs. Collectively, they represent more than 93% of Africa’s GDP. Adaptation accounted for less than 24% of total climate finance flows to Africa, despite Africa being highly vulnerable to climate change, hence, the need for a concerted effort for an increased flow of climate finance to Africa, and a better balance of finance between mitigation and adaptation.
Vision
AfDAN’s vision is to lead the accelerated delivery of equitable climate finance in an a predictable and sustainable manner in all Africa Countries
Mission
To make African Continent a leader in accessing climate finance, capacity strengthening and innovative technology transfer for accelerating locally led adaptation and resilience building globally
Core Values
AfDAN leadership believes in a locally led African driven just strategic collaborative and participatory approach in achieving adaptive and resilient low-carbon-green-blue African philosophy for enabling a just climate response and so-economic transformation. The network attains this through determination, dedication and commitment embedded in: -strong values, principles, vital behaviors, inclusivity, climate justice, partnerships, collaboration, transparency, and accountability. This is achieved by ensuring that all African countries, regions, and communities are not endangered by the devasted impacts of climate change.
Objectives of the Network
The main objectives of the network are to
- Strengthen South-South-North cooperation and learning,
- Enhance timely communication between DAEs, GCF and development partners.
- Provide link between NDAs/FPs, and development partners barriers removal through consultations,
- Analyse and disseminate board’s decision and their impacts on African,
- Lobby African leaders-presidents and legislators political support/good will,
- Organise bi-annual meeting,
- Promote Africa based consulting firms and organisations to be engaged by the GCF as service providers,
Why AfDAN
AfDAN offers the continent an opportunity to use collective power to secure the elusive climate deal that is responsive to the African people, economies, and intuitions, which safeguards the continent’s interest and devoid of from apocalypse. Past climate change related global commitments, have failed to deliver on many critical issues for endeared by Africa, but it also offers several opportunities for African countries to work towards an African-owned, Africa-driven, and African-focused climate finance mobilization by 2030 and for the 2050 Long-Term Strategy (LTS) in Africa.
African countries need to be united and speak as one on several climate finance actions: – ease of access, increased ambition, accelerated mobilization in scale and predictable manner enhanced, issues through network. This shared vision and voice will translate into a collective power that contributed to many of the qualified wins coming out current and diplomatic engagements.
Transformation needed for Africa:
- Stronger climate adaptation finance advocacy and policy shifts towards 2030 and 2050 long term strategy,
- Increased flow of climate funds, with a reaffirmation of the pledge of $100bn in climate funding for developing countries and a commitment to double adaptation funding to $40bn.
- Clearer rules on both regulated and unregulated carbon markets.
- Ease of access toclimate change funding mechanisms-GCF, GEF, LDCF, CIF, loss and damage for Africancountries
- Need for more predictable financing for Africa’s sustainable development agenda,
- Advocating new mechanisms for addressing recurring Africa debt crises through debt swaps for climate actions, and building resilience to climate shocks.
It is upon this background that AfDAN was formed in 2018 to advocate and champion for ease of access, predictability, accelerated, enhanced and sustainable mobilization of climate finance in scale to Africa in line with Article 7 of the Paris Agreement. The network will, among other things, expand the coherence of African climate finance positions with needs and priority actions that are Locally Led by African Countries (LoLAC) themselves with targeted support from the development partners to increase the climate finance ease of access, available and sustainable manner for locally led implementation at scale.
The key issues being championed by the network are increased Africa’s financial needs for climate action, narrowing the financial gap facing Africa in tackling climate change; promoting African country ownership of NDCs; propose new initiatives for African led Climate Change adaptation and mitigation; just energy transition and sustainable infrastructure, long-term development planning, accelerating a just green economy transition as well as establishment of innovative channels for both public and private finance flows into climate adaptation and resilience investments and de-risking of investments in African.
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