Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues in Africa

Local and regional governments are invited to start Talanoa Dialogues in their cities,
regions and countries in 2018. The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues 1 were
launched by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) at the Ninth World
Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February 2018, with special partners: The
Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) and UN-Habitat. These
dialogues are part of the global effort to accelerate engagement of the urban community
in climate action, building on the synergy of sustainable urbanization, low-emission and
resilient development.
The word Talanoa itself refers to a style of dialogue used in the Pacific, which fosters
openness and inclusiveness. This is the spirit of the Cities and Regions Talanoa
Dialogues, a dialogue designed to help the climate action to be supported by a more
ambitious and collective global effort.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues are a series of in-country climate
consultations that should start in 2018. These are designed to initiate a collaborative
process involving governments at all scales. They gather national, regional and local
governments to take stoke of the situation and strengthen NDCs. These consultations
are part of a wider global exercise called the Talanoa Dialogue, launched at COP 23,
the 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2017. The Talanoa Dialogue
serves as an initial stocktaking exercise in 2018 to prepare the future NDC submissions.
Through the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues, local and regional governments are
engaging in efforts to take stoke of the situation and help strengthen climate action at all
levels, from global to local.

In the critical year for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the Paris
Agreement, this initiative will improve the contributions of local and other subnational
leaders in strengthening national climate plans with a goal of scaling up the ambition
towards the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) (which
should be revised by 2020).

The first 25 events of the 2018 Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues were announced
at the Cities IPCC Conference in Edmonton on 7 March 2018 2 , and there are more
partners to the dialogues who are mobilizing resources and organizing events including
the African Talanoa Dialogue which was held on 13 th April in Nairobi, Kenya at end of
the first Africa Climate Week.

ICLEI Africa has planned multiple Talanoa Dialogues in its member cities, at least nine
debates will take place throughout the African continent in 2018. Among these are the
following selected host cities: Kigali in Rwanda, Harare in Zimbabwe, Lilongwe in
Malawi, Kampala in Uganda, Windhoek in Namibia, Lusaka in Zambia, Dakar in
Senegal, and others. Through these discussions involving national and local
governments, as well as non-State actors, ICLEI Africa aims to foster multi-level
governance frameworks in order to strengthen and facilitate the implementation of
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The process will continue also with global
events, such as the ICLEI World Congress 2018 3 in Montréal, Canada, in June 2018, as
a meeting for local, regional and national governments, international agencies,
researchers and private sector actors from around the world.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues will continue to focus on promoting
integrated, holistic and balanced multi-level governance approaches to help in the
implementation of NDCs, in the context of sustainable urban development worldwide.

You can contribute to these dialogues, via Twitter #Cities4Talanoa and
#Regions4Talanoa

1 Available: http://www.cities-and- regions.org/cop23/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pr- cities-and- regions-invite-national-governments- to-year- long-dialogue- bridging-the- new-urban- agenda-and- the-paris- agreement.pdf.
2 Available at: http://www.cities-and- regions.org/cop23/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ipcc- media-advisory.pdf.