Addis Ababa — Participants at a recent inception workshop on delivering climate-resilient development policies held at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Addis Ababa agreed on a number of outputs to support African governments, the private sector and communities to respond to impacts of climate change by enhancing the integrated implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

At the Sweden project inception workshop, which was organised by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the ECA, participants agreed on the need to build on the work under the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme to develop a strategy for addressing issues of gender and climate change.

Participants at the workshop held under the theme; "Delivering Climate Resilient Development Policies in Africa 2019 -2023", developed a partnership matrix to guide the six-months Swedish project inception period.

They also agreed that a framework for review and submission of revised NDCs in Africa will be developed in a consultative and collaborative manner.

Speaking at the inception workshop, Mr James Murombedzi, Chief of the ACPC, said the overall objective of the project is to support African governments, the private sector and communities to respond to the impacts of climate change by enhancing the integrated implementation of the NDCs.

Achieving this objective will positively contribute to reduced vulnerability and improved livelihoods for economies, ecosystems, infrastructure and communities at risk of being impacted by adverse climate effects in Africa, identified as the broader impact.

The project builds on the ACPCs programmes, including WISER, the Africa Infrastructure Resilience Facility (Afri-Res), and ClimDev- Africa phase I, and targets four priority focus areas around which all the project outputs are clustered.

The focus areas of the project are:

Providing technical support for integrated implementation of NDCs;

Building the resilience of African economies, societies and ecosystems to climate change;

Addressing vulnerabilities and managing climate-induced human insecurity;

Coordination, knowledge management and partnerships.

Mr Linus Mofor, a Senior Environmental Officer with the ACPC, said the expected overall results for the inception phase encompass three countries, and that a study on gender stakeholder analysis will be conducted. In addition, participatory gender-sensitive approaches for addressing key climate change-related impacts will also be developed as well as a gender mainstreaming strategy.

A private sector engagement strategy, climate information services and climate resilience investment strategies will also be developed during the same period.

The inception workshop brought together key stakeholders and implementation partners to review the inception phase workplan, develop criteria for identifying focus countries, design operational modalities and put in place monitoring, learning and evaluation (MEL) frameworks.

The stakeholders included ACPC, the African Union Commission, Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Section of the ECA, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, African Development Bank, Swedish embassy, Regional Economic Commissions, Regional Climate Centres, WMO African regional office, and others.