LEAD Africa

Inspiring leadership for a sustainable

World

Project Report

African leadership and Climate Change

LEADING THE WAY…MONTRER LA

VOIE
Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 2
1. Introduction

LEAD Africa designed and delivered the project ‘African Leadership on Climate Change’ in
the second half of 2009, and this is the final report on each stage of the programme
delivery, along with an analysis against the overall and specific objectives. It elaborates on
the learning from the programme activities and resulting proposed follow up activities. The
information on the first stages previously reported in the midterm report has been included
here in an abbreviated form as to have a full report on the project activities.

The project was part of LEAD Africa’s continued work to foster African leadership and
ownership of the climate challenge in Africa. The work started in 2006/07 on a series of
pan-African civil society consultations that focused on mainstreaming climate change
adaptation into development policy and practice. The next stage consisted of a workshop
‘African Leadership on Climate Change:
Challenges and Opportunities for Regional
Institutions’ in early 2009, in partnership with
the African Development Bank. The primary
objective of this workshop was to establish
the challenges and opportunities for regional
institutions around their role on climate
change, and to list recommendations for
implementation.

This project was based on the selected challenges and recommendations articulated by the
African regional and sub-regional institutions at the workshop. The immediate objectives for
the project were as follows:

• Disseminate identified challenges, opportunities and proposed solutions on African

leadership and Climate change as articulated at the ‘African Leadership on Climate
Change: Challenges and opportunities for Regional Institutions’ workshop amongst
decision makers, CSOs, NGOs, the LEAD network and other stakeholders
• Stimulate discussion of African Leadership and climate change, and the specific
challenges and recommendations articulated at the ‘African Leadership on Climate
Change: Challenges and opportunities for Regional Institutions’ workshop amongst
decision makers, CSOs, NGOs, the LEAD network and other stakeholders.
• Facilitate cross-stakeholder engagement in the climate change negotiations in
Copenhagen 2009 (COP 15)
• Increase awareness amongst African CSOs, NGOs, political actors, academics,
journalists and other stakeholders of the climate change negotiations in
Copenhagen 2009

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 3
The overall objectives that these were to contribute to were:

• Strengthen African leadership and ownership of the climate challenge

• Increase African cross-stakeholder engagement and participation in the
international climate change negotiations

The report will firstly elaborate on each of the outputs, objectives and indicators, and
secondly detail learning from the activities and events. The report will conclude with the
recommended next steps for the LEAD Africa ‘African leadership on climate change’
programme, which are based on input from our project partners and learning gained from
the activities delivered throughout the project.

2. Report against outputs and project indicators

indicators

2.1 African Leadership on Climate Change: disseminating the challenges and

opportunities

Output 1:
1: Publication: African Leadership Challenges and Recommendations
1
Collate, design and publish challenges and recommendations on African Leadership on climate
change as articulated at the ‘African Leadership on Climate Change: Challenges and
opportunities for Regional Institutions’ workshop

Output 2:
2: Dissemination of African Leadership Challenges and Recommendations publication.
Distribute the above publication through the LEAD Africa network, partner agencies and to all
participating institutions and organisations.

1st Indicator:
Indicator:
The challenges, opportunities and proposed solutions on African leadership on Climate change
as articulated at the ‘African Leadership on Climate Change: Challenges and opportunities for
Regional Institutions’ workshop disseminated amongst decision makers, CSOs, NGOs, the LEAD
network and other stakeholders.

The Publication ‘Leading the way’/’Montrer la voie’, was produced, translated and printed
and successfully disseminated through both networks and conferences. It was based on the
above mentioned Tunis workshop (‘African Leadership on Climate Change: Challenges and
opportunities for Regional Institutions’) and included, besides the challenges and
opportunities identified at the workshop, a discussion around the status quo of African

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 4
leadership on Climate change, and specifically recommended next steps for African
regional institutions.

The publication was distributed and disseminated through the following conferences,
forums, meetings and networks:

Networks as PDF:

1. The January Tunis workshop participants of which this programme based its
objectives: 30 people - Representatives from regional and sub regional institutions
(AfDB, AU, UNECA, CILSS, COMESA etc – full list can be provided)

2. LEAD and ENDA networks and partner networks: The publication reached over
5000 network members (LEAD Africa: 500, LEAD International 2500, partner
networks 2000) who all work around climate change.

3. Climate-l (IISD climate change network): Each posting is distributed to more than
23,000 readers in primary distribution and perhaps more than 100,000 in
secondary and tertiary
distribution

We have had positive responses

from all the networks and
individuals seeking to engage
further on the subject matters in the
report. It was especially
commended for the angle around
Leadership and also for the fact
that it was in both English and
French, which made it easier to
disseminate in Francophone and Anglophone locations.

Conferences and Forum’s:

Forum’s:

1. 14 - 16 Septembre
Septembre 2009, Cotonou, Benin: Ecowas Concertation sur les Négociations
sur les changements climatiques:

The ‘Concertation
Concertation sur les Négociations
Négociations sur les changements climatiques meeting was a
prelude to the AMCEN meeting in mid-October 2009 and intended to define and

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 5
harmonize the position of ECOWAS member states on elements of the ongoing negotiations
in preparation for COP15.

The LEAD representative in Cotonou, Thierno Seck Bal (LEAD climate change specialist)
disseminated the publication information through a presentation to all the participants. This
was followed by a question and answer session. All participants expressed interest in
further information about African leadership around climate change, and the presentation
inspired a good discussion. The list of participants was added to our distribution list for all
other activities, especially around COP 15.

Ecowas furthermore requested that there should be follow up activities around leadership
on climate change after COP and offered to partner on activities with LEAD Africa to this
effect. The discussions and arrangements for these events in the region are ongoing.

2. 9 – 11 October 2009, Ouagadougou,

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: WORLD SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT FORUM on Climate Change: Which Opportunities for Sustainable
Development

The aim of the Forum was to seize on new opportunities of development brought about by
climate change and to be a springboard towards an economic upturn and a review of
development policies in Africa. Specifically, it meant to heighten awareness of climatic
issues, assess new opportunities of development, and to build a common outlook for Africa
in anticipation of the negotiations in Copenhagen amongst other.

The LEAD representative at the Forum, Moustapha Sene, a journalist specialising around
environment, disseminated the report to the participants, and furthermore ensured that all
media present were informed of the publication, and that they further disseminated it
through their media outlets (newspapers, TV, radio). As in Cotonou (see above) all
expressed interest in the publication and have been either been provided with a hard copy
or a PDF version.

3. 19 – 22 October 2009, Addis Ababa,

Ababa, Ethiopia: AMCEN Pre COP

Two representatives were in Addis Ababa (Masse Lo – LEAD Africa Coordinator, and
Marie Skraep – LEAD Africa Project Manager) to arrange the panel discussion, which is
reported on below (See 2). At the same time the publication was widely distributed not only
to the AMCEN conference participants, but
also during all pre meetings and events
running concurrent at the ECA meeting center
(For example the International Conference on
Population and Development with

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 6
participants such as African Ministers, Regional institutions and experts in population and
social development). 300 hard copies of the publication were distributed along with PDF
versions circulated to all participants.

As a result of the meeting LEAD Africa and UNEP/AMCEN have engaged to do further
events alongside AMCEN meetings, have made further arrangements with Ecowas, and
established contact with several CSO’s and negotiators for follow up work.

4. 2 – 6 of November , Barcelona,
Barcelona, Spain:
Spain: Barcelona Climate Change
Change Talks 2009

Masse Lo (LEAD Africa Coordinator) attended the Barcelona Climate Change Talks 2009
from the 2 – 6 of November, and here engaged with African negotiators, parliamentarians,
and African regional institution representatives to further raise awareness around the
project objectives, and the recommendations from the publication. An estimated 200
copies of the publication were distributed, alongside several meetings to discuss the
programme activities coming up to COP15.

Barcelona Beijing

5. 8 – 14th November 2009, Beijing,

Beijing, China:
China: LEAD International Session on Leadership
and Climate Change: Impacts, Innovation and Interdependence

Masse Lo (LEAD Africa Coordinator) attended the LEAD International Session in Beijing,
alongside other LEAD representatives, from the 8 to the 14th of November, 2009. The
Session brings together not only LEAD Fellows from the whole world, but also strategic
partners, government and business representatives and experts on the Session topics. This
session was focused on Leadership and Climate change: Impacts, Innovation and
Interdependence.

The publication (100 in hard copy and estimated 100 PDF) was distributed to all parties
present and a Leadership panel was arranged to discuss the subject of Leadership on

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 7
climate change (see 2). This panel was equivalent to the Addis panel at the Amcen
conference.

6. 5 – 18th December 2009, Copenhagen:

Copenhagen: COP15 and side events

Masse Lo (LEAD Africa Coordinator) and Marie Skraep

(LEAD Africa Project Manager) attended COP 15 and
related side events from the 5th – 18th December, and the
publication was widely distributed via partner stands,
meetings and distribution at relevant events, such as the
AMCEN meetings around the negotiations. An estimated
400 publications were distributed alongside other LEAD
Africa material.

The publication was well received by all and the feedback

has been very positive in relation to continuing work
around the subject matter. The response from regional
institutions and government representatives has especially been supportive of the work, and
many expressed interest in either continuing to collaborate with LEAD Africa and, or
commence new partnerships.

7. Other

The publication was further distributed in relation to the COP15 live events in Dakar and
Bakel (Senegal), Abidjan (Cote D’Ivoire), Zomba (Malawi) and Johannesburg (South
Africa). These events involved journalists, government representatives, businesses and non
governmental institutions, and an estimated total of 300 PDF versions of the publication
were distributed. The response was again very positive and enthusiastic from all, and calls
for further work around leadership on climate change on regional and national level was
expressed by all.

Total number of publications distributed:

PDF:: +20000
PDF
Hard copy: +1000

2.2 African Leadership on Climate Change: discussing challenges and

opportunities

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 2 8
 Output 3:
3: Leadership Panel 1 (African Pre COP tbc)
Organise and facilitate, in partnership with Enda Tier Monde, a Leadership panel to further the
discussions around African Leadership on climate change. The panel will consist of short
presentations by leading persons (4-5 people) from regional institutions and organisations,
followed by facilitated question and answer sessions, enabling further debate on the
recommendations.

Output 4:
4: Leadership
Leadership Panel 2 (COP 15)

Organise and facilitate, in partnership with Enda Tier Monde, a Leadership panel at COP 15 in
Copenhagen to further the discussions around African Leadership on climate change. The panel
discussion in Copenhagen will furthermore be transmitted to the events described in the
following component.
nd
2nd Indicator:
Indicator Discussion of African Leadership and climate change, and the specific challenges
and recommendations articulated at the ‘African Leadership on Climate Change: Challenges
and opportunities for Regional Institutions’ workshop have been stimulated amongst decision
makers, CSOs, NGOs, the LEAD network and other stakeholders.

As shown above, the subject of African leadership and climate change, and the specific
challenges and recommendations articulated at the ‘African Leadership on Climate
Change: Challenges and opportunities for Regional Institutions’ workshop, has through the
project activities been presented and discussed in depth at the conferences, meetings and
fora which LEAD Africa has been present at through this project. This has been both through
presentations, and through the media, and direct with climate change representatives from
government, CSOs and NGOs from around the continent and beyond. The publication has
successfully introduced the subject matter and also inspired discussion.

The project specifically aimed to deliver 2 leadership panels to further these discussions.
The first was held at the AMCEN pre COP meeting in Addis Ababa in October 2009, and
the second in Beijing for the LEAD International Session in November 2009. It was
originally planned to have a panel at COP15 in Copenhagen, however due to strained
agendas and an already full meeting room schedule, it was agreed to do similar activities
online via TelePresence from Copenhagen.

AMCEN
AMCEN pre COP meeting, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
Ethiopia, 23 October 2009

The main discussions with regional institutions, negotiators and representatives were in
Addis Ababa for the AMCEN pre COP, where LEAD held a one hour panel discussion,
alongside the scheduled negotiations. This is the first time that AMCEN has had a side

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 9
event alongside their meetings, and expressed that they were keen to see similar events at
future meetings.

The panel consisted of 3 panellists and a moderator (Mounkaila Goumandakoye - Regional

Director, UNEP Regional Office for Africa, Sekou Toure - Conflict Resolution Commissioner
GEF, Masse Lo - LEAD Africa Coordinator and Moderator Youba Sokona – Executive
Secretary, OSS and Commissioner on the Commission on Climate Change and
Development).

Several of the issues raised in the publication were discussed. Among these were the
financing of adaptation initiatives, collaboration between the regional institutions,
implementation of cross border data sharing and linking activities to national initiatives. The
time was limited for discussions and follow up question, which could have easily continued
for the rest of the day, had the schedule not been very hectic.

Innovation
LEAD International session on ‘Leadership and Climate Change: Impacts, Innovation and
Interdependence’,, Beijing, China,
Interdependence’ China, 11 November
2009

As described above (Indicator 1) a leadership panel

was set up at the LEAD International session
(‘Leadership and Climate Change: Impacts,
Innovation and Interdependence’ in Beijing, China,
and this panel sought to address similar questions
such as those raised in Addis:

• Why are the majority of initiatives and actions

on climate change led by external agencies?
• What factors limit the emerging leadership on climate change? Mandate? Human
resources? Political will?
• What is the role for institutions (national, sub-regional and regional) around climate
change?
• What are the enabling conditions that will lead to a leadership on climate change?

The discussion focused, as in Addis, mainly around the effect of external agencies and how
they steer the regional policies on climate change and how they limit the ability to plan for
long term sustainable development. It further discussed the format of leadership required,
and concluded that there was a clear need for letting the relevant regional and sub
regional institutions steer the climate change response, and that strong leadership from
these were thus needed to a greater extend that is currently the case.

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 10
Copenhagen
At COP15 the key activity was a combination of online TelePresence meetings and Webex
conferences to stimulate discussion of the publication, ensure cross stakeholder
engagement in the negotiations and increase awareness of climate change in general and
the negotiations. In each of the sessions, which are described in detail below, the
dissemination of the publication topics was ensured.

2.3 African Leadership and Climate Change: Cross stakeholder engagement in

COP15

Output 5: LIVE COP 15 in Africa (Screenings) 3

Coordinate and set up live screenings with our national associations in a number of countries
across the continent in cooperation with LEAD Associations. Each LEAD association will set up a
venue, where the live negotiations and events that has particular relevance to Africa will be
screened. LEAD Africa will furthermore link this initiative to rural communities in Senegal and
Malawi. This is in relation to an ongoing LEAD Africa / DFID project on capacity building for
climate change adaptation, which is being delivered in collaboration with community
organisations.

Facilitated questions and answers sessions with LEAD staff, party negotiators and other
representatives from the continent present at COP15 will further ensure a flow of information
from Copenhagen. Each country venue will aim to have around 50 participants from journalists,
to civil society representatives and other parties. The shape of the individual event will depend
on the exact COP15 agenda, however it is currently estimated that it will consist of a live
screening of the opening and closing ceremonies accompanied by discussions and
presentations, and with a midpoint screening supported by question and answer sessions and
interviews.
rd
3rd Indicator: Cross-stakeholder engagement in the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen
2009 (COP 15) has been facilitated

The main activity to ensure cross-stakeholder engagement in the climate change

negotiations in Copenhagen was the LIVE events via TelePresence (Cisco Conference
technology) and Webex (online CISCO conference facility).

The activities until this point in the project had tried to engage across sectors in preparation
for Copenhagen by disseminating the publication as widely as possible, not only to the
specific conferences where most participants were already engaged in the negotiations,

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 11
but to a wider audience that normally have little or no opportunity for involvement in the
climate change talks. This was done through media, through partner networks and face to
face meetings. LEAD furthermore has the benefit of having fellows that work in a variety of
sectors, but all with an interest in sustainable development, thus the message engaged as
many as possible across the board. The LEAD Africa team strived further to ensure
engagement from as many as possible in the LEAD network, by sending out frequent reports
with up to date news from Copenhagen.

The LIVE events

The LIVE events took the following general

format. COP 15 TelePresence session

Each location (See below) scheduled 3-4 days

of meetings with the following general agenda.
There were agenda variations depending on
time difference, and other local conditions.

In the morning the participants would watch the

sessions (opening ceremony and plenaries from
the UNFCCC website) from Copenhagen on a
big screen, accompanied by a question and answer session with local experts. This was
followed by a screening of the TelePresence/Webex conference that LEAD Africa
representatives set up in Copenhagen (in partnership with Cisco), where experts and LEAD
Africa staff updated on the latest developments and took questions from each venue. This
was followed by closing offline discussions in each location. To enable all the venues to
share their information a special website was set up, where participants and other
interested parties could see the daily reports from the venues and Copenhagen along with
photo’s and video’s (http://leadinafrica.org/leadafricacop15onlive/).

TelePresence
Copenhagen Johannesburg
Johannesburg

Webex
Bakel, Senegal Dakar, Senegal

Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 12
 The original plan was to have local venues in
Bakel - Senegal, Dakar – Senegal, Abidjan –
Cote D’Ivoire, Zomba – Malawi, and Dar Es
Salam, Tanzania. The activities went to plan in
Bakel, Dakar, and Abidjan, however due to
various challenges the activities had to be
changed for the other locations. In Tanzania we
Malawi – stakeholder meeting were unable to have the screenings as the
internet connection, even after multiple tests,
proved insufficient to even show the streaming of the events in Copenhagen. In Malawi
there were also connection issues, however it was fuel shortages which in the end left them
unable to get the participants to the venue. They did manage to have one day of
discussions with all the invitees, and at this meeting they disseminated all the information
around the publication, discussed the latest’s developments from Copenhagen, and shared
the information from the LEAD Africa team and other LIVE venues.
In Copenhagen and Johannesburg the TelePresence (see
photo above) sessions with LEAD and invited guests
present went smoothly, and these were then connected
via Webex (online – see photo) to the countries. This part
was not always working, due to the Cisco system not
allowing online connections for security reasons,
however through a combination of Webcams and follow
up updates all were involved in the discussions. There
were glitches with connections in Dakar, Abidjan and
Bakel, however if and when the connections dropped,
the participants in all the locations were very patient and
discussions were summarised to ensure participation
from all.
Webex Session

The discussions concerned all the latest developments from Copenhagen and of course
especially the African position was closely followed and intense debate around this was
seen every day both on and offline. The Danish hosts were also closely followed and all
showed a keen interest in the proceedings and how the deliberations were handled.

Examples of specific issues handled off line were:

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 13
 • the position of African countries;
• issues related to adaptation;
• responsible management of funds for adaptation;
• governance;
• the need to involve all stakeholders at all levels in addressing the climate change
challenge;
• weak adaptation plans defined by Africans themselves;
• the need to define a development model unique to Africa and marked with the seal of
sustainability;
• consideration of gender issues in negotiation and adaptation measures;
• the nature of the funds claimed by developing countries to finance adaptation
measures.

The participants (over 300 in total) in the ‘local’ venues were from the media, NGO’s,
CSO’s, government and business, so questions were never one sided and all demonstrated
interest in further knowledge of climate change in general and the negotiations.

Prior to the events it had been identified through preparatory meetings with strategic
partners, that some ‘training’/briefing was required to the prospective participants, to
ensure that they would get as much out of the events as possible. This was especially with
regards to the invited journalists, to ensure that they had access to information around
climate change and the negotiations to be able to report to the general public on the
proceedings. This prompted LEAD Africa to have a preparatory ‘information/training’ day
before the meetings started (see below 4).

2.4 African Leadership and Climate Change: increasing awareness of COP15

Output 6:
6: Awareness of climate change and climate change
change negotiations 4
Increase awareness in the LIVE screening locations (see output 5) through inviting journalists and
similar that will further ensure dissemination of information relating to climate change and to the
climate change negotiations.
th
4th Indicator:
Indicator: Increased awareness amongst African CSOs, NGOs, political actors, academics,
journalists and other stakeholders of climate change and the climate change negotiations in
Copenhagen 2009

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 14
As with the 3rd indicator above, then by working through the LEAD and partner network,
and with the media, then it was sought to reach the widest audience possible as to
strengthen awareness of the negotiations in Copenhagen and climate change.

We worked with Cisco to ensure even more are aware of the possibilities that exist for
participation in COP 15. Cisco was ensuring access to TelePresence points through their
offices and Embassies across the world, and this information was circulated to all of our
networks to increase awareness and participation.

In the LIVE events described above it was predominantly the media that was invited as to
ensure that news of the proceedings in Copenhagen reached as many as possible along
with a raised awareness of climate change in general.

A pre ‘briefing/information’ session, aimed to ensure that the invited media had a good
basic knowledge of climate change and related challenges, and the status quo on the
negotiations prior to COP15. The half day session included a screening of Al Gore’s film ‘An
Inconvenient Truth’, and a presentation on the African position for the upcoming
negotiations in Copenhagen amongst other followed by discussions. The participants were
furthermore provided with background
information to the negotiations and
Bakel LIVE screening
information on where they could find more
literature around climate change.

The presence of media at the LIVE events

resulted in several newspaper articles, TV
and radio interviews. In Bakel there were
media representatives from surrounding
regions and also from Mali; in Cote
D’Ivoire interviews with participants and
coordinators from TV2 (main TV station) along with much other coverage.

In both Dakar and Abidjan some knowledge of the climate change challenges and
negotiation issues were in existence prior to the events, and this was increased through our
activities; however it was especially in Bakel that we saw awareness increase significantly.
The Bakel participants and
surrounding communities have
Cote D’Ivoire Session
reported back to us that the
information, discussions and
follow up work has increased
their knowledge around
climate change and how
negotiations as far away as

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 15
Copenhagen can have a direct impact on their lives. This was the first time that any of the
participants had had the opportunity to follow the LIVE events unfolding at COP. Follow up
work have been called for by many members of the communities and we are working
through other LEAD/Enda projects to make this a reality.

In Cote D’Ivoire they were inspired by the reports from Copenhagen and are now planning
further training on and around Climate change, as requested by many of the participants
and in response to requests by outsiders contacting LEAD as a result of the media
coverage.

The LIVE events were all in all a great success despite the often challenging technology
aspects, and we are currently striving to repeat to process for Mexico COP16 with even
more locations.

7. Programme challenges
The activities that has been a part of this project has been challenging, but in the whole
very successful. LEAD Africa and LEAD across the world, has had very positive feedback
from all partners and from all the regional institutions, government representatives, NGOs,
CSO, media etc. that has in one way or other been involved with the activities. There has
been huge support for the events and activities, and continuous calls for similar initiatives in
the run up to the next COP in Mexico.

There have been specific challenges along the way which will be briefly touched on here.

The publication and following dissemination, challenged us especially with regards to the
contractual arrangements. The finalized contract was only ready in August, which meant
that many of the activities had a delay, and subsequently we were unable to attend some
of the events that would have been key for the project objectives.

The dissemination events went as planned and likewise the panels in Addis Ababa and
Beijing. As mentioned earlier, the panel in Copenhagen that had been part of the original
plan was held in Beijing, due to most of the identified speakers and participants already
having very full agendas and also due to the difficulty of getting a meeting space in
Copenhagen. Considering now how hectic COP15 was, then we feel this was a good
decision.

The LIVE events from Copenhagen and in Bakel, Dakar, Abidjan, Malawi and
Johannesburg, did face us with several challenges, mainly caused by technology problems
and internet connection issues in the respective locations. As mentioned Cisco worked with
us to link the various locations, however due to delayed set up from their side they had
been unable to provide us with needed connections specifications, and also the time to run

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 16
tests and identify alternative avenues and technology solutions to achieve the objectives for
the events. They did however work daily with us at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen to
ensure that the TelePresence links to Johannesburg went without glitches and worked hard
to try and get the link to the other locations. In the end however we did not get the direct
link that we needed and had to be content with separate Webex conferences and part
Webcam links during the TelePresence sessions.

We will be working with them to identify solutions that are appropriate for the locations in
Africa and the needs that there exist there, for when we hopefully repeat the activities in
Mexico.

Bakel, Dakar, Abidjan, Malawi and Johannesburg reported various issues such as the fuel
shortages in Malawi, unfortunately making them unable to participate directly in many of
the activities. All had internet connection problems and electricity supply issues from time to
time, but all in all managed to follow the activities.

All in all, considering the many activities and the list of parties involved then we feel that
very few real challenges were faced and that the activities were very successful.

8. African leadership on Climate Change: Next steps

Throughout the activities, development of the next steps of our ‘African Leadership and
Climate change’ programme has never been far from our minds. In all the locations, events
and venues, as a result of the activities, and from all our existing and new partners, ideas
and recommendations have been forthcoming. The following are some of the avenues that
we are currently pursuing, both to build directly on the activities that have been delivered
through this project, and other climate change and leadership initiatives being pursued by
other LEAD entities and partners as a result of our discussions.

• LIVE COP 16:

16 We primarily hope to be able to build on the experiences from
Copenhagen, and thus to have LIVE events from Mexico COP 16 in even more
venues, thus reaching an even larger audience. We are currently developing a
technology assessment plan to determine how we can ensure the best possible
connection to as many locations as possible. CISCO has through our meetings and
partnership around COP15, engaged to work with us to this end.

• Cisco and LEAD Africa:

Africa As above discussions are underway on how to improve the
communication across the LEAD Africa network and to other networks, avenues to
build capacity with new technology ‘tools’, and specifically to discover ways that
new technology can help further the work around the challenges and
recommendations identified at the Tunis workshop. As part of this process LEAD
Africa has recently participated in a Cisco film and interview around their

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 17
 TelePresence technology. This was the conference facility technology that was used
in Copenhagen and Johannesburg as part of the project.

• AMCEN and African Leadership on CC: CC UNEP/Amcen has further expressed interest
in other side events at their meetings, such as the one held in Addis Ababa. We are
developing specific panel events especially to further the discussion around the
specific recommendations from the Tunis workshop, which we hope will be part of
their 2010 agenda. This is still in the planning stages.

• Ecowas - Awareness raising and capacity building on CC Leadership: As with

AMCEN, Ecowas has requested that we work with them alongside their existing
conferences and meeting to raise awareness around Leadership on climate change
and to continue the discussions the specific recommendations from Tunis in an Ecowas
context. The arrangements for this are ongoing.

• The Media and CC:

CC From the media present at all venues, all encouraged further
training around climate change and development issues for journalists as to ensure
well informed reporting around these subject matters. As part of any new LIVE events
this will be a permanent part of our programming in the future.

• Enda and LEAD network:

network Through our own and the partner networks and
organisations, such as our host organization Enda Tiers Monde, further collaboration
on capacity building around the recommendations and opportunities from the Tunis
workshop are being elaborated.

From the individual localities that took part in the LIVE events, a wealth of possible initiatives
was recommended. This was not only to do similar LEAD Africa initiatives, but also to
ensure further awareness raising around climate change and leadership, and also practical
action projects for adaptation.

In Cote D’Ivoire some of the follow up recommendations were to

• Create and facilitate a framework for exchange and collaboration among

participants;

• Initiate or participate in class actions (education, environmental monitoring,

dissemination of knowledge and actions related to adaptation to climate change,
etc.).

• Carry out concrete actions on the ground in rural and urban areas (planting trees,
fight against wildfires, etc.).

In Bakel the key recommendations were:

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 18
 • Raise further awareness about climate change in the region through all the
available media outlets (radio, TV, newspapers)

• Advocate and lobby local, regional, national, and international institutions,

government and other decision makers

• Creating cross boundary (Mali, Mauritania, Senegal) and cross regional

(Tambacounda, Bakel, Matam etc) journalist networks

• Work with government to implement NAPA actions in the region

• Show the Al Gore film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and LEAD short film ‘Where we used
to fish we now grow food’ in schools in the region

• Collectively work to improve natural resource management in the local area and
encourage tree planting, and similar practical action projects.

Similar activities were recommended for Dakar and Malawi, and all LEAD staff in the
respective locations are working towards realizing these. LEAD Africa hopes to be able to
support collective activities throughout 2010 with all the parties involved.

9. Conclusion

From the local communities members in Bakel, business and CSO representatives in
Johannesburg, government ministers and negotiators in Addis and Barcelona, and climate
change experts and parliamentarians in Copenhagen, we have through this project had the
opportunity to work with a wide variety of stakeholders, that have inspired, challenged and
most importantly given us hope for the future negotiations around climate change. Even if
COP 15 in Copenhagen did not deliver the agreement that could have been hoped for, the
keen interest and participation from all has been an inspiration and it is with anticipation
that we look forward to the continuation of our ‘African Leadership and Climate Change’
programme.

We feel that we can conclude that this part of the overall programme has been delivered
successfully and contributed beyond our expectations to the overall objectives that we set
out more than a year ago to date.

Even though there is still a long way to go, then we feel that we have seen an increase in
cross-stakeholder engagement and participation around climate change and the
negotiations. This has been encouraged through initiatives such as ours and other CSOs
and NGOs activities, along with all the preliminary work done by UNEP/Amcen and the
African negotiators. It can definitely be said that African leadership on climate change has
been strengthened in 2009 and that there is evidence of increasing ownership of the
climate challenge on the continent. The African position was strong at COP15 and it is to be

Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 19
hoped that this will continue through the next stage of negotiations and developments, and
we believe it will, if the cross-stakeholder engagement seen continues with the same
fervour as was seen in the run-up to COP15.

10. Acknowledgements

The project would have been impossible without the assistance, support, inspiration and
hard work from all involved. We wish to thank all for their dedication and perseverance
and we hope that we will continue to work together in future activities.

A few dedicated acknowledgements are needed.

Firstly to Peter Krogh Soerensen (Danish Climate Attaché for Africa) for his perseverance,
dedication and continued support of the project throughout.

To N’gillan Faal for her writing skills and patient editorial skills

To Peter Aquah and his team from UNEP for their invaluable support for the side event in
Addis Ababa

To the Enda Tiers Monde team for their support and expertise throughout the project, and
especially for their time and energy in Copenhagen

To all LEAD staff in Johannesburg, Zomba, Dar Es Salam, Cote D’Ivoire, Bakel and Dakar
for their hard work on the events

To Wetlands for their keen participation in Dakar

To all the participants at the LIVE events, for their invaluable input to discussions and the
programme

11. Appendix

Appendix 1:
1 ‘Leading the way’/’Montrer La Voie’ publication pdf low resolution version

Appendix 2: Audited Budget Report

Appendix 3:
3 Project Completion Sheet

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Project completion report, LEAD Africa, African Leadership and Climate Change 21