Climate Change: Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa secure €1 million

The Government of Flanders this year has committed 1 million euros to the Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) to support five projects in three African countries – Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa.

 

According to the African Development Bank, the project will contribute to demonstration of an innovative results-based finance model for adaptation to climate change in Malawi.

In neighboring Mozambique, the projects will be implemented by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Institute of International Economic Cooperation and will support two projects on “unlocking blended finance and youth/women entrepreneurs for resilient blue-green (or coastal) growth in Mozambique” and promoting “syntrophic agriculture as a strategy to foster resilience, climate adaptation and recovery of vulnerable communities living in degraded marine and costal ecosystems in Zambezia”.

In South Africa, the projects seek to support ecosystem-based adaptation and financing for livestock farmers in threatened grassland as well as innovative access modality for the Green Climate Fund.

The climate situation is already worse in southern Africa than in most other regions. While the global average air temperature has risen by nearly 1°C since accurate weather records began a little over a century ago, in southern Africa temperatures have risen on average by twice this amount.

The United Nations is reporting that prolonged droughts in the region and across the continent have led to food shortages, which will impact 45 million people.

Southern Africa has suffered from drought for several years. And just this year, it got hit with back-to-back cyclones, which caused flooding and damaged existing crops.

Simon Calcoen, Policy Officer at the Flanders Department of Foreign Affairs, said, “the Government of Flanders looks forward to continue their cooperation on climate change adaptation in Africa”.