Global leaders on Thursday tasked Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta to spearhead Africa’s effort to address climate change under the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP).

The Leaders Dialogue on Climate Adaptation, organized by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) on 7 July at the University of Nairobi, featured endorsements by the GCA Chair and 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon; African Development Bank Group President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina; World Trade Organization Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

President Kenyatta thanked former Secretary-General Ban Ki moon and GCA CEO Professor Patrick Verkooijen for giving him the role of AAAP Global Champion. He said: “Africa has been most adversely affected by climate change. Adaptation is not just important. It is a survival strategy.” Kenyatta recognized the joint efforts of the three multilateral institution heads “for their tireless efforts in championing the adaptation agenda.” He said: “I am confident that with support from friends like these, we shall reach our goal.”

Adesina said: “We need a champion, a tested leader with a respected global voice. President Kenyatta is a doer. He is a climate-friendly leader. His dynamism, voice and leadership will help as we drive for greater financing for climate adaptation for Africa.”

He explained that Africa loses 7 to 15 billion dollars every year because of climate change, and this figure was expected to rise to $50 billion per year by 2030. He said while nine out of the 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change (90%) were in Africa—accounting for just 4% of global carbon emissions—the continent received only 3% of total, global climate finance.

Adesina added: “Climate change is unfair to Africa and global finance on climate is unfair to Africa. The Bank is leading efforts to support Africa to adapt to climate change. We have doubled our climate finance to reach 25 billion dollars by 2025. We now devote 67% of our total climate finance to climate adaptation, the highest level among all multilateral financial institutions globally.”

Verkooijen said: “This is the battle of our lives, to contain climate change, to adapt to it, and by doing so, tame it. And in you, President Kenyatta, we have a champion lion tamer indeed.”

He highlighted some of President Kenyatta’s achievements and his strong record in standing up for Africa. “This record is globally unmatched,” said Verkooijen. “You pioneered Kenya’s commitment to land degradation neutrality. You ratified the Paris Agreement in record time. You made Kenya one of the first countries globally—not just in Africa but globally—to announce and submit ambitious NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) targets, and there is much more.”

Verkooijen also recounted visits to Kenya’s Makueni County and Samburu County, where the community is investing in resilience with support from the African Development Bank. With the Bank’s support, he said, they are building water pans and boreholes that reduce the need to seek pasture far from home and which also create economic opportunities to grow crops, diversify incomes and build resilience for forests during the challenging times caused by failing rains.

Verkooijen encouraged the university students not to lean backwards but to lean forward and take advantage of this opportunity to engage in the adaptation agenda for Africa. “You are the future of the adaptation challenge. We look to you to develop innovative solutions for a resilient continent.” He told them he would return to announce the winners of the Disruptive Technologies Entrepreneurship Challenge in Kenya, where GCA and the University will award 50 million shillings ($485,000) each to scale up the most innovative solutions for climate-resilient infrastructure.

Vice Chancellor Stephen Kiama said a landmark partnership agreement between the GCA and the university would support a robust pipeline of investment for infrastructure in Kenya, enhancing climate finance, creating green adaptation jobs, and supporting Kenyan entrepreneurs in the scaling up of sustainable adaptation businesses.

Ban Ki-moon said President Kenyatta’s voice as a statesman had already carried the message across the world. He said: “Amid the bad news, the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program is rapidly scaling up to deliver solutions on the ground. We are in a long, hard marathon. We have a true champion in you. Thanks to your commitment and determination, I know that Kenya will prove itself, through your government’s partnership with the GCA and the AAAP to be a climate adaptation example for others to follow."

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said President Kenyatta’s international leadership on climate adaptation had inspired others to step up climate action. Georgieva said: “People everywhere face sharp cost of living increases, and food insecurity is dangerously rising in many regions. Many African countries must also contend with frequent, extreme weather events that bring human tragedy and socioeconomic disruption.”

She stressed the urgency for the green transition to include investments in resilience. She said Sub-Saharan African countries need to spend at least 2-3% of GDP per year on climate adaptation. “No country can do it alone, especially as many have elevated debts following the pandemic crisis.” She said it was critical for the international community to meet or exceed the goal of providing $100 billion in climate finance to developing countries each year, and importantly to make sure that a sizeable amount of the climate finance goes to adaptation in addition to mitigation.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala commended Kenyatta for being a driving force behind the AAAP. She said his strong voice and leadership would inspire others to scale up and accelerate the actions required to adapt to climate change. She emphasized that trade was a necessary part of the solution to climate change adaptation and mitigation. “Just like the rest of our economic systems,” she said, “trade and the WTO can and must change to best support the just transition to a low global carbon economy and a climate resilient society”.

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 AfDB President’s remarks during the Leaders’ Dialogue on Adaptation Action in Africa

The Africa Adaptation Acceleration program (AAAP) – a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation – recently showcased its initiative to harness the dynamism and leadership of Africa’s youth to drive climate adaption innovation.

On the side-lines of the recent 3rd Gobeshona Global Conference(link is external), AAAP brought together participants in its YouthADAPT program to share their experiences with the program as well as strategies to scale up youth-led approaches to adaptation

In his opening remarks, Dr. Kevin Kariuki, African Development Bank Vice President for Power, Energy, and Climate & Green Growth underscored young people’s integral role in Africa’s sustainable development. 

“Youth form the backbone of Africa’s population, constituting over 60% of the population. The continent’s sustainable development hinges on harnessing this demographic dividend,” Kariuki said.  “The AAAP, through its YouthADAPT pillar, has so far supported 35 youth-led enterprises in 14 African countries with $3.5 million to drive climate actions in sectors such as agriculture, waste management, renewable energy, water and sanitation,” Kariuki added.  YouthADAPT is one of AAAPs four pillars for accelerating climate adaptation.

Caroline Mukuhi Mwangi, founder of Kimplanter Seedling(link is external) and Nurseries Limited, said her company was already seeing the benefits of participation in the program.  Kimplanter provides drought resistant seedlings that boost food production and food security in Kenya.  

Mwangi said, “We have ventured into new markets in semi-arid regions and expanded our seedling varieties, increasing our revenue by 36% as a result of AAAP support. Our customer base has also grown from 8,000 to 16,000 farmers and we have increased our staff from 17 to 32, all of whom are women or youth.”

Aramide Abe, the Program Lead of Jobs for Youth & Entrepreneurship at the Global Center on Adaptation(link is external) confirmed that participating enterprises have already begun to show results. She said some have seen revenues rise by up to 50 percent.  A fifth have ventured into new markets and have raised over $106,000 in additional funding from different sources.

Juveline Ngum, the founder of Bleaglee Waste Management Limited, a Cameroon-based start-up company using drone technology to tackle waste disposal, also stressed the benefits of participating in YouthADAPT.

“We have expanded our waste disposal management solution from west Cameroon into Douala, effectively using drones to detect clogged drainages and utilizing data for demand driven waste management,” Ngum said. Now, we aim to expand across national borders into Dakar, Senegal.”

Noël N'guessan’s Cote d’Ivoire-based company, LONO(link is external) – a winner of the 2022 YouthADAPT challenge – has patented technology for the production of organic fertilizer. The company has also introduced modular and mobile bio digesters for the agri-food sector. Biodigesters use microbes and other bacteria to break down organic waste including fat, greases, and even animal manure.

Still, Nguessan said challenges remained.  “The cost of prototyping hardware equipment can be prohibitively high, resulting in lengthy project development cycles, “he said. He pointed to financial management training as vital for youth-led businesses.

The session also featured presentations by African Development Bank partners and other global organizations that have rolled out similar initiatives to YouthAdapt.

Sandra Simbiri, Program Specialist at UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited(link is external), said:

“Supporting entrepreneurs through STEM principles is key to preparing the young for technological innovations.”

Alfred Asiko, Senior Market Engagement Manager for the ClimateTech Programme at GSMA(link is external), a mobile technology association, said it has played a role in empowering youth to deploy such technologies as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and blockchain to tackle climate challenges.

“Through our innovation fund, we offer grants to climate startups, with a focus on supporting resilient solutions that utilize frontier technologies. We also provide skills development and training to help entrepreneurs succeed in scaling their innovations,” Asiko said.

He said that venture capital (VCs) firms had a critical role to play. ”We need to see more VCs stepping up and taking over from development finance institutions (DFIs) in providing financing and support to youth-led businesses,” he added.  

YouthADAPT targets reaching 10, 000 African youth-led enterprises by 2025, promoting innovation and inclusive growth for young people in climate resilient jobs and through youth enterprise development. The AAAP’s other three pillars are Climate-Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security; the African Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator and the Innovative Financial Initiatives for Africa

The third annual Gobeshona Global Conference, organized by the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, took place virtually from 10-16 March 2023. It  focused on monitoring Locally- Led Adaptation (LLA) and resilience.

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) in collaboration with the African Development Bank and the Wangari Mathai Institute have concluded a three-day regional forum on the future of resilient food systems in Africa.

The Forum, called the Future of Resilient Food Systems in Africa – AAAP Digital Solutions for a Changing Climate provided training aimed at strengthening the capacity of stakeholders from across Eastern Africa to design and implement solutions to improve food security and climate resilience and to facilitate knowledge sharing among farmers on approaches to scale up the use of Digital climate-informed advisory services, or DCAS.

Digital climate-informed advisory services are tools and platforms that integrate climate information into agricultural decision-making. These services range from digital mobile apps, radio, and online platforms to digitally enabled printed bulletins based on climate models and extension services that utilize climate information platforms.

DCAS offers crucial opportunities to build the resilience of small-scale producers in the face of worsening climate change impacts. From seasonal forecasts to pest advisories, effectively designed services provide producers with the resources to adapt to climate shocks and plan for new climate conditions.

Globally, more than 300 million small-scale agricultural producers have limited or no access to such services because service provision is still fragmented, unsustainable beyond project cycles, and not reaching the last mile.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the forum, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of Global Center on Adaptation called for urgent financial support to put Africa on the path of food sovereignty.

“Africa needs urgent support to scale up the implementation of adaptation solutions that are already yielding good results for irrigation, developing drought-resistant seeds, crops and livestock diversification, “ he said. 

“Through the African Adaptation Acceleration Programme, AAAP, we are rolling out a $350 million project to build resilience for food and nutrition security in the Horn of Africa towards mobilising new digital climate technology for market information, insurance products, financial services that can and must be tailored to smallholder farmers’ needs”, he added.

Speaking on behalf of the African Development Bank’s East Africa Regional Director General,  Nnenna Nwabufo, Dr Pascal Sanginga, Regional Sector Manager for Agriculture and Agro-Industries noted that the forum was timely, coming hot on the heels of the recently concluded Dakar 2 Feed Africa-Food Sovereignty and Resilience summit , organised by the African Development Bank.

“The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) is already contributing to closing Africa’s adaptation gap by supporting African countries to make a transformational shift in their development pathways by putting climate adaptation and resilience at the center of their policies, programs, and institutions. There is no doubt that AAAP will be a strong component of the Country Food and Agricultural Delivery Compacts to accelerate the transformation of Africa’s food systems and build a more resilient Africa”, he said.

Professor Stephen Kiama Gitahi, Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, reiterated the relevance of the forum pointing out that 70% of the population in Eastern Africa live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. He encouraged the trainers to simplify the modules in a manner that removes the fear for technology and accelerate adaptation for rural farmers. Citing the legacy of late Professor Wangari Maathai he stated:  

“We acknowledge that gaps exist on climate adaptation in the rural communities and those can be smartly bridged with the use of digital smart agriculture and climate innovations to create great conservation impact in our region.”

The forum brought together stakeholders from ministries of agriculture, related government agencies, public research institutions, farmer organizations, universities and non-profit organizations working on climate adaptation for food security in Eastern Africa. These included participants from Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Mauritius, Tanzania, Seychelles, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya.  

About Global Center on Adaptation
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization which works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector. Founded in 2018, GCA operates from its headquarters in the largest floating office in the world, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Beijing, China.

About the Wangari Maathai Institute, University of Nairobi
The Wangari Maathai Institute (WMI) for peace and environmental studies is a global centre for teaching and research on environmental management, governance, peace and conflicts and the nexus between peace and democracy. The centre was founded in 2009 with the support of the Government of Kenya (GoK), the African Union(AU) and the African Development Bank(AfDB) to celebrate and immortalize the work of the late Nobel Laurete
Prof.Wangari Maathai who was a global champion on environmental conservation and governance. The centre trains future leaders and Champions for environment. The Centre is located in the serene environment in Upper Kabete suburb of Nairobi City.