Intra-ACP Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (Intra-ACP GCCA+)

Overview

Increased frequency of extreme weather events, especially floods, storms, and droughts, are some of the key impacts of climate change in Eastern and Southern Africa. These climate events carry significant social, economic and political impacts, including threats to food production and hindered progress towards poverty reduction. Moreover, the negative impacts of climate change disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including women, youth and those with poor access to resources, compounding vulnerability and compromising adaptation.

The Programme on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the COMESA-EAC-SADC region seeks to build successful adaptation and mitigation actions across Eastern and Southern Africa. The programme is a novel cooperating arrangement that brings together three international donors alongside three Regional Economic Communities, in support of a single programme focused on addressing the impacts of climate change.

The programme’s key target group are smallholder famers, who comprise the largest population group in the region, and key elements to the programme include scaling-up and mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture and sustainable land management practices.

The GCCA was the first funder of the programme, contributing 4 million Euros from 2010 to 2014, and the programme received approximately 50 million Euros from Norway and the United Kingdom that will continue operations into 2016.

The three Implementing Entities are:

• the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) (Coordinating Body)
• the East African Community (EAC)
• the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Objectives

The overall objective is to address the impact of climate change in the COMESA-EAC SADC region through successful adaptation and mitigation actions, which also build economic and social resilience for present and future generations. The specific objective is to enable the COMESA-EAC-SADC Member States to increase the investments in climate resilient and carbon efficient agriculture and in the related areas of forestry, land use and energy practices.

Seven Results Areas

1. Contribute to the adoption of key elements of the African Climate Solution and mainstreaming of climate change in national planning.
2. Support member states to access adaptation funds and other climate change financing sources and mechanisms through national investment frameworks for climate adaptation in agriculture, forestry and other land uses.
3. Enhance adoption of Climate Smart Conservation Agriculture in the COMESA-EAC-SADC region.
4. Strengthen capacity for national research and training institutions and implementation of research programmes.
5. Implement climate vulnerability assessments and analysis (directly implemented by SADC and directly funded by DfID).
6. Apply Mitigation solutions in the COMESA-EAC-SADC region with carbon trading benefits.
7. Establish a regional catalytic facility to support investments in national climate smart agriculture programs.

Key achievements

Mainstreaming climate change in national planning

• 9 out of 14 targeted Climate Smart Agriculture projects were implemented in 9 Member States across the COMESA-EAC-SADC region: Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• 8 out of the 14 targeted Member States were supported to design their National Climate Change Response Strategies (NCCRS) and policies: Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
• 152 African Climate Negotiators were trained with the support of the Programme.
• 8 position papers were produced with the support of the Programme and fed into the African Position through the AGN and AMCEN.

Access to climate financing for adaptation

• 9 out of 14 targeted Member States were supported to design their climate smart agriculture Investment Frameworks (including climate proofing their National Agriculture Investment Plans):  Burundi, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia.

Adoption of Climate-Smart/Conservation Agriculture

• 11 out of the 14 targeted Climate Smart Agriculture National Task Forces were strengthened in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• 73,580 new adopters reached directly by the Programme on CA interventions (51% women) out of 140,000 planned.
• 367,900 new beneficiaries reached directly by the Programme on CA interventions (5 persons per household) out of 700,000 targeted.
• As of 2014 the data collected from ten sampled Member States showed that the total number of CA adopters grew from 483,711 in 2010 to 900,000 in June 2014, which represents 75% of the targeted 1.2 million.

Mitigation solutions

• 10 concept notes on country mitigation solutions were developed.