African lobbies launch campaign to track expenditure of climate finance

Nairobi, Kenya | Xinhua | African campaigners on Friday launched an initiative to track the expenditure of climate finance in the continent.

Charles Mwangi, head of programs and research at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) told journalists in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, that the ‘Follow the Money’ campaign will maintain a comprehensive real-time database to monitor the flow of funds to mitigate and adapt against the effects of climate change.

“The aim of the campaign is to ensure that money from multilateral agencies and the private sector reaches the intended beneficiaries,” Mwangi said.

He revealed that the main multilateral institutions supporting climate change activities in Africa include the World Bank, Global Environmental Facility and the African Development Bank.

Mwangi noted that despite having contributed the least to global warming and having the lowest emissions, Africa faces collateral losses that threaten to reverse its development gains.

Anne Tek, national coordinator of the Kenya Platform for Climate Governance (KPCG) said that the campaign will ensure that all relevant stakeholders including the youth constituency are well involved in the administration of climate finance in Africa.

Tek noted that tracking the flow of climate finance will uplift the unheard voices of local, indigenous and marginalized communities most affected by climate-induced losses and damages by ensuring that money flows to where it is most needed.

Wanjira Mathai, Chair of the Wangari Maathai Foundation said that climate finance should be utilized to help Africa to strengthen its local resilience against the impact of climate change.

She added that Africa’s climate finance landscape is very fragmented resulting in the need to track the flow of the funds.

She observed that the vulnerability of Africa to climate change is driven by a range of factors that include high reliance on ecosystem resources for livelihoods, weak adaptive capacity and less developed agricultural production systems.

Eva Darare, secretary general of the Indigenous Resource Management Organization said that climate change is an increasingly serious threat in Africa as it is the most vulnerable continent to the phenomenon.

She revealed that the campaign will ensure that there is equity and overall effectiveness in the disbursement of climate funds in Africa. ■