Africa Faces Climate Threats with Adaptation Knowledge Network

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Africa is particularly susceptible to climate change for a variety of reasons: its reliance on rain-fed agriculture, limited supply of freshwater, widespread poverty and disease, weak institutions, variable access to information and technology, complex disasters and conflicts, and inadequate access to basic services.

Severe droughts in the Sahel in 2012 and the Horn of Africa in 2011 brought into sharp focus the serious impacts of climate change, highlighting that there has never been a more urgent need for stronger adaptation as a priority in providing sustainable solutions to reduce the vulnerability of a great majority of Africa's one billion citizens.

On 7 March, 2013, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) hosted an event at its headquarters to provide a forum for facilitating learning and exploring the potential for synergies and concrete collaboration between the various initiatives with rational to optimizing the use of resources for adaptation under the current financial resource constraint. 

Around 120 representatives from 60 Africa regional adaptation knowledge platforms and other organizations who attended endorsed the Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) as the continental network to be responsible for coordinating, facilitating, harnessing and strengthening the exchange of information and knowledge and fostering and supporting strategic planning and policy processes.

The regional networks in attendence adopted a declaration endorsing the Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) as the continental network to be responsible for:

o Coordinating, facilitating, harnessing and strengthening the exchange of information and knowledge.
o Building new alliances to enhance collaboration and innovation,
o Harmonizing and aggregating knowledge in useable packages tailored for addressing particular climate risks.
o Fostering and supporting strategic planning and policy processes
o Building capacity to provide short, midterm and long-term solutions to climate change.

The Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) aims to harness the valuable knowledge and experiences gained from such initiatives, and to share these with governments, regional authorities, and communities facing similar climate challenges.