From June 28 to 29, 2023, the UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) and Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) organized a capacity building workshop in Rwanda for gender and climate change focal points from Eastern and Southern Africa. The purpose of the workshop was to support the implementation of the Enhanced Lima work programme on gender and its Gender Action Plan (GAP) at the national level, through sharing experiences and knowledge to facilitate mainstreaming gender in formulating, monitoring, implementing and reviewing, as appropriate, national climate change policies, plans, strategies and activities, including Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans.
In his opening remarks, William Otieno, RCC Regional Lead welcomed the participants to the training and expressed appreciation to the African Development Bank, through the ACCF for supporting women-oriented and focused initiatives in the climate change sector in the focused countries through this project. From the government of Rwanda, Mr. Faustin Munyazikwiye, Deputy Director General of REMA and the UNFCCC National Focal Point for Rwanda encouraged the climate change focal points to seize the opportunity provided by the training to strengthen climate actions within the region and increase women’s representation in the international sphere. “Gender is not just about women, so efforts should be emphasized to ensure inclusive participation of all underprivileged stakeholders in addressing climate change issues”, he added.
Addressing the audience online, Emile KOUAKOU, the ACCF’s Programme Officer and focal point for this project at the ACCF’s Secretariat at the African Development Bank, commended the convening of this workshop as “evidence of progress in the project’s implementation”. He then provided an overview of the ACCF activities and said that "the Fund’s third call for proposals focused on Gender Equality and Climate Resilience was designed with the objective to address women’s and men’s unequal access to the resources that are needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to adequately and proportionally address the ways in which gender roles influence women and men’s ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change". Emile added that to achieve this objective the ongoing ACCF’s program was designed on an innovative approach which is “participatory and inclusive with respect to women, adopting a feminist principle of gender transformative and rights-based approaches for all activities throughout the project cycle.”
This 2-day workshop was convened under the framework of the ACCF-funded project on “Capacity building for women climate change negotiators in Eastern and Southern Africa.” The project was approved by the African Development Bank on September 15, 2022, with a grant amount of US$ 470,000. Its primary goals are to increase and enhance effective participation of women in climate change decision making–particularly at the international level, and to promote gender consideration among all negotiators by improving understanding and awareness of gender issues. The project was launched on February 13, 2023 and is expected to close on November 30, 2023.
