Building Africa’s Climate Action movements: Designing collaboration between civil society and local government

Building Africa's Climate Action movements: Designing collaboration between civil society and local government

 

This session aims to discuss key recommendations and methodologies from the Scaling up and Empowering Movements for Climate Change Advocacy (SEMCCA) project cities as well as summarise critical lessons on multi-level governance processes that are required to build systems for meaningful collaboration between local governments and civil society organisations for collective change at local level.

Resilient climate solutions form the basis of urban planning and need to draw on the experience and knowledge of people who will be most affected by climate change. In cities, this requires multi-level governance processes that build systems for collective change through improving collaboration between local authorities, national governments, urban residents (particularly the urban poor) and civil society organisations in their various approaches to climate action. This session forms part of the Scaling up and Empowering Movements for Climate Change Advocacy (SEMCCA) project and shares critical lessons learned from various African cities as well as key recommendations and methodologies from the project.

 

Construire les mouvements d’action pour le climat en Afrique : Concevoir la collaboration entre la société civile et le gouvernement local.

Les solutions résilientes au changement climatique doivent de plus en plus s’appuyer sur l’expérience, les connaissances et l’énergie des personnes qui seront les plus touchées par le changement climatique pour planifier les futures zones urbaines. Dans les villes, il faut pour cela s’appuyer non seulement sur les connaissances des autorités locales et des gouvernements nationaux, mais aussi sur celles des résidents urbains (en particulier les pauvres) et des groupes de la société civile et des mouvements sociaux. En raison des différents niveaux d’action et des rôles des gouvernements locaux, de la société civile et des citoyens, le fait de travailler ensemble peut offrir un aperçu des préoccupations, des valeurs et des processus de chaque groupe et permettre de rationaliser et de prioriser une ligne d’action commune. Cette session est une continuation de la session précédente “Scaling up and Empowering Movements for Climate Change Advocacy (SEMCCA)” lors de la conférence “Construire des relations saines entre les gouvernements locaux et la société civile pour l’action climatique”. En tant que telle, la session vise à discuter des recommandations clés et des méthodologies du projet ainsi qu’à résumer les leçons critiques sur les processus de gouvernance à plusieurs niveaux qui sont nécessaires pour construire des systèmes pour une collaboration significative entre les gouvernements locaux et les organisations de la société civile pour un changement collectif. La session prendra la forme d’un dialogue pour discuter des questions clés, des leçons et des recommandations. La session fait partie du projet SEMCCA (Scaling up and Empowering Movements for Climate Change Advocacy), organisé par ICLEI Africa et financé par Urban Movements Innovation Fund (UMIF).

 

Host: ICLEI Africa

Olamide Udoma-Ejorh

Director, Lagos Urban Development Initiative

Eddy Chikuta

Coordinator, Lusaka Water Security Initiative

Paul Opiyo

Researcher, Kisumu Local Interaction Platform (KLIP)

Solophina Nekesa

Senior Professional Officer, ICLEI Africa

Vanessa Tshite

Professional Officer, ICLEI Africa

Session Summary

The session ‘Building Africa’s Climate Action movements: Designing collaboration between civil society and local government’ was hosted by Vanessa Tshite and Solophina Nekesa from ICLEI Africa. The hosts facilitated discussions with a panel of speakers who have participated in ICLEI’s Scaling Up and Empowering Movements for Climate Change Advocacy (SEMCCA) programmes. The speakers were Olamide Udoma-Ejorh from the Lagos Urban Development Initiative, Eddy Chikuta – coordinator of the Lusaka Water Security Initiative and Paul Opiyo – a researcher at the Kisumu Local Interaction Platform. All of the speakers described how the SEMCCA programme has enabled them to foster improved and effective collaboration between civil society groups and their local governments. After the speakers shared their stories the hosts opened up the discussion to all of the event attendees to describe what entry points they have used to scale up climate action in their communities. Many attendees commented that climate mitigation action in their communities has been held up by the scarcity of environmental research in African cities. Subsequently, an open discussion about community participation with local government ensued. During which participants emphasised the need for neutral and accessible spaces for community engagement. Finally, Vanessa closed the session by sharing the outputs that ICLEI’s SEMCCA programme has produced.