Press Statement: African Non-State Actors Urge A Recall of the Unjust and Unorthodox Decision of Locating the Santiago Network On Loss & Damage In Geneva

Nairobi, Kenya; March 25, 2024

Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance, its allies and partners, representing the active agency of Non State Actors from across Africa is deeply disturbed by the decision of the Advisory Board of the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage (SNLD) which held its first meeting from 18 to 20 March, in Geneva and selected Geneva, Switzerland, as the host of the secretariat of the SNLD.

Such a decision is an epitome of global injustice and the power weilding tactics of the global north to control all the decision making processes for responding to climate change globally.

The Advisory Board meeting in Switzerland, and whose main agenda was to consider the technical report by the UNOPS-UNDRR on the cost-effectiveness, including a cost–benefit analysis of various locations around the world as options for the location of the head office of the Secretariat from a pool of potential locations tactfully veered off from the task and conveniently avoided the recommendations of UNOPS-UNDRR report.

In the assessment process, UNOPS-UNDRR strongly recommended Nairobi as the optimal location to host the Network based on their thorough analysis using scientifically-proven methodologies from a shorlist of various other locations such as Addis Ababa, Bonn and Geneva;

This analysis from UNOPs-UNDRR to the Advisory Board was blatantly and contemptuously ignored and the Board selected Geneva, which was ranked third in the analysis;

The board in its analysis turned a blind eye on what the network is meant to deliver, further concentrating institutions of climate governance, particulraly on loss and damage in the North.

This decision by the Board demonstrates the sustained conspiracy by developed countries to keep climate response measures remote to African and other developing nations who ought to be at the centre of the capacity strengthening support of the SNLD.

We are Aggrieved that the hosting right for a Platform which embodies the struggles of the communities at the frontline of climate crisis, and whose location should symbolise the very palpable rationale of tackling Loss and Damage has once again been unjustly snatched from a deserving developing country through a clandestinely nefarious process of manipulation, carrot-dangling and intimindation;

Now in pursuit of justice, greater transparency and accountability to the developing nations, condemn the decision; declare the Advisory Board’s decision a nullity and call for: Read more