PACJA holds a side event on Locally led Adaptation Actions in Africa and Beyond

11 November 2021 | Two PACJA-led side events at COP26 focused on mobilizing global support for locally-led livelihood improvement projects using the 8 Principles of Locally-Led Action (LLA).  The “Activating Youth Voices to Accelerate Locally led Adaptation Actions in Africa and Beyond” and Integrated Locally-Led livelihood improvement project “Tujiinue Tena” both took place at the Locally-Led Adaptation Hub at COP26 on on 11 Nov 2021 and 9 Nov 2021 respectively.

Activating Youth Voices to Accelerate Locally led Adaptation Actions in Africa and Beyond

The side-event “Activating Youth Voices to Accelerate Locally led Adaptation Actions in Africa and Beyond” concluded with a call for steady financing and capacity support for more practical actions at local level by African youth representatives including Francisco Josué Lara Fletes (Costa Rica), Pius Oko (Nigeria), Dann Diez (Philippines), Laura Fúquene Giraldo (Colombia) and Rufaro Nyasha Matsika (Zimbabwe).

It was concluded that youth needed to build effective alliances throughout the global south on youth for local level climate action. Learning from the experiences of the South-South Youth Platform on Climate Action, the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Justice was birthed on August 30, 2021 at the Kenyatta University in Kenya to build new bridges and bring the voices of frontline communities into the international arena. The school also sought to bridge the conversation between prominent scholars, communities and other stakeholders on climate justice in the Global North and those in Global South, while providing an opportunity to explore diverse possibilities on climate justice.

Integrated locally-Led livelihood improvement project “Tujiinue Tena”

In his presentation showcasing the results of Integrated Locally-Led livelihood improvement project “Tujiinue Tena” that is implemented in Meru County, Kenya, Dr. Mithika Mwenda demonstrated the power of sunflower crop in enhancing farmers’ capacity to adapt to or cope with climate change. Sun flower is a drought resistant crop which matures in four months. The targeted farmers who grew the crop, enjoyed good harvest despite the drought situation that affected the region in year 2020 and 2021.  

“Tujiinue Tena” which is a Kiswahili phrase that means “lifting ourselves once again” draws its concept from the need was to enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers using an agribusiness SME model that will enable them to grow Sunflower for sale at a guaranteed price. The targeted farmers have so far gone through two successful sunflower growing seasons and all the produce was purchased by BIDCO Company as per the agreement with PACJA.

The concept of locally-led climate actions

PACJA is a proponent of the concept of locally-led climate action based on realization that the fight against climate change makes sense if response measures are implemented at the local level to address the plight of the communities at the front line in the battle against climate change.

The Panelists endorsed the Principles of Locally-Led Climate Actions. The Principal Secretary Fisheries and Blue Economy in Kenya noted that Small and Micro Enterprises contribute largely in developing counties economies and thus need intentional support by allocating finances to their initiatives and encourage innovations to enhance local adaptive capacities. Samson Toniok, CEO National Environment Trust Fund in Kenya noted that supporting local communities to build their resilience against the impacts of climate change is necessary to cope with climate change.  Rachael Banda, a small holder sugarcane farmer from Malawi and a Fairtrade Youth Focal Person for the Southern region of Africa noted that support for the local initiatives needed to be improved for farmers build their resilience to thrive and survive the impacts of climate change.

The Project was jointly implemented by PACJA and BIDCO Africa, and involved several producers working collectively and proactively in an organized arrangement. The model took the form of a tripartite partnership, where PACJA mobilized the farmers in the eastern region of Kenya; together with BIDCO (an oil producing company) farmers were trained and offered material and technical support for production of sunflower seeds. BIDCO committed to buy all the produce from the farmers and at a price agreed. This Project applied the Eight Principles Locally-Led Adaptation that aim to ensure adaptation programmes, funding and practices are run and owned by local communities.