CoM SSA signatory cities training on climate plan elaboration

3-6 June 2019, Nairobi, Kenya. 

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub Saharan Africa (CoM SSA), an initiative funded by the European Union (EU) and led by CEMR, organised a training workshop on ‘’Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Plans for Urban Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” in Kenya, gathering 43 civil servants from 37 cities which are Com SSA signatories from more than 20 different African countries.  

The workshop aimed at reinforcing the capacities of cities in elaborating and monitoring a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP). The coursed was aligned with the 3 main pillars: access to energy, mitigation and adaptation. The workshop was following up on the previous event taking place in Saly, Senegal, in September 2018 and the recent publication of the JRC – Joint Research Centre, the technical guidebook “How to develop a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) in Sub-Saharan Africa”. The program also included components on climate finance and gender and climate change. 

The training consisted in several presentations and group work and was provided by 8 specialists from the following organisations, most of them based in Africa, ENDA Energie (based in Senegal), Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA) and ICLEI-Africa (both based in South Africa), ADEME (France) and JRC – Joint Research Centre from the European Commission.  

 The course resulted in reinforcing the cities’ capacities in elaborating their SEACAP. Cities gained an improved understanding on the different sections of what their climate plan should include, and on the planning, implementation and monitoring process. The event was also an opportunity for networking and experience sharing between participants. Finally, taking advantage of their presence in Nairobi, the participants made a site visit to the UN-Habitat carbon-neutral building and to the local project of pedestrian street area by the city of Nairob