Training workshop in Climate Finance and Mobilisation for EAC Partner States concludes in Arusha
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 21st April, 2023: The East African Community (EAC) training workshop in climate finance access and mobilisation for EAC Partner States has concluded in Arusha.
The three-day workshop brought together the operating entities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Financial Mechanism and accredited entities to equip experts from Ministries responsible for Environment, Finance and EAC Affairs in the EAC Partner States with the necessary knowledge and skills to mobilize and access climate finance.
The EAC Secretariat has collaborated with UNFCC on the implementation of the Needs Base Finance project developed as a response to the Conference of Parties Long-term Finance decisions. The Long-term Finance process is aimed at progressing the mobilization of resources originating from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources in an effort to scale-up climate change finance.
To date, the EAC-UNFCC collaboration has accomplished an assessment of EAC needs, priorities, current flows and barriers to access and mobilization of climate finance; based on which, a regional EAC Climate Finance Access and Mobilization Strategy and Implementation Plan was developed as well as the identification of a number of the priority projects in the region.
Making his opening remarks, Mr. Jean Baptiste Havugimana, the Director of Productive Sectors at the EAC Secretariat, said that the EAC had identified more than eight priority projects and programmes in Agriculture and Food Security, Water Security and Waste Management, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, and cross-cutting issues like capacity building and private sector engagement.
“The first phase of the technical assessment of needs and finance flows in the region gave an indication of the magnitude of this task, without the inclusion of the Democratic Republic of Congo, NDCs alone, require at least US$21 billion annually for their implementation,” said Mr. Havugimana.
“Almost a ten-fold increase compared to the average annual International Public Finance Flows. This denotes the importance of having adequate expertise to access and mobilize funding from all sources,” added Mr. Havugimana.
Mr. Havugimana expressed his gratitude to the UNFCCC Secretariat and its Regional Collaboration Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa for their continued support in addressing climate change challenges and advancing the EAC integration agenda.
On his part, The UNFCCC Team Leader, Mr. Grant Kirkman, thanked the EAC Secretariat for coordinating the organization of the meeting, adding that it was a testimony of the EAC’s commitment to strengthening the regional capacity and knowledge on existing financing windows and instruments, project development processes and assessing the quality of the concept notes and project proposals.
The workshop was attended by representatives from the: EAC Partner States’ Ministries of Environment, Finance, and EAC Affairs; UNFCCC; UNDP; Global Environment Facility; Green Climate Fund; Adaptation Fund; African Development Bank; East African Development Bank; and International Fund for Agricultural Development.
For more information, please contact:
Simon Peter Owaka
Senior Public Relations Officer
Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department
EAC Secretariat
Arusha, Tanzania
Tel: +255 768 552087
Email: sowaka [at] eachq.org
About the East African Community Secretariat:
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of seven Partner States, comprising the Republic of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of South Sudan, the Republic of Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC Secretariat is ISO 9001: 2015 Certified