UCLG Africa joins AfDB’s “Africa NDC Hub”
The pan-African organization, United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa), is pleased to inform its members, partners and collaborators of its accession to the ‘Africa NDC Hub.’
The Africa NDC Hub is a platform created by the African Development Bank (AfDB), which serves as a pool of resources for African countries, together with local and international, public and private institutions. Its aim is to support the 54 African countries implement their respective NDCs and thus fulfill their commitments under the Paris Agreement.
UCLG Africa is the first local authority organization to join the Africa NDC Hub. This is of great importance given the fact that African cities are the most threatened by climate change. In fact, of the top 10 most endangered cities, 8 are African, with Bangui (RCA) and Monrovia (Liberia) topping the list, according to the 2018 Climate Change Vulnerability Index .
Through this membership, members of ULCG Africa will receive new operational support in the fight against climate change, after the establishment of UCLG Africa’s Climate Task Force, launched in 2017 at COP23 in Bonn, Germany.
This support to African local governments will focus on three strategic areas :
- Promoting long-term climate action at the local level.
- Increasing the capacity of Africans cities and territories to ensure access to services in line with low-carbon and resilient development;
- Aligning and integratinglocal policies in the process of implementation of the NDCs (Promoting vertical governance and political ownership);
- Increasing visibility of local governments’ action for climate actions.
- Mobilizing the various means of implementation for the territorialization of the NDCs:
- Having access to the best approaches and practices in terms of project structuring as well as mechanisms for cooperation and exchange of knowledge;
- Improving the technical capacity and the capacity to mobilize resources for financing climate projects.
- Coordination, advocacy and partnerships for effective integration of local communities into the NDCs implementation process.
- Advocacy for better direct access of African local governments to climate finance by setting up a window in the Green Climate Fund dedicated to African cities and territories;
- Promoting the role of African cities and territories as essential links in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The integration of UCLG Africa into this coalition is also part of the strengthening of our organization’s strategic partnership with the AfDB and also as part of UCLG Africa’s positioning within the African and global climate ecosystem with a view to highlighting its planned or existing initiatives, aiming at supporting local elected officials in their fight against climate change.
Other partners of the Africa NDC Hub include: the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Commission for United Nations Africa (ECA), the Agency’s planning and coordination of NEPAD, the United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the French Development Agency (AFD), 4C MOROCCO, Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI), the International Trade Center (ITC), and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
