Press Release – The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa at COP23

A reality check session on vertical integration – exploring cooperation and coordination on climate action between all levels of government – @COP23, hosted by the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa to explore how to connect local action to National Determined Contributions (NDCs).

On Thursday 9^th November 2017 in Bonn, Germany, the COP23 Cities & Regions Pavilion presented the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa session, co-organised by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) and CEMR. The focus was on sharing experiences and highlighting good practice examples of vertical integration between national and local governments on climate action. This is also referred to as multi-level governance, exploring how best to communicate, coordinate and collaborate when tackling climate change. Moderated by Maryke van Staden from the ICLEI World Secretariat, the session speakers included  Richemond Assie, the Coordinator of the National Climate Change Program of Cote D’Ivoire; Solly Tshepiso Msimanga, Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane (South Africa), and the Vice President of the Botswana Association of Local Governments (BALA), Mayor Sylvia Thabitha Muzila from the City of Francistown.

Following an exchange of different approaches ot multi-level governance, also addressing finance of local climate action, there was consensus that there is a need for integrating national and municipal climate action; with a bottom-up approach needed to inform on the need for specific local needs, challenges and concerns. The national level can clearly benefit from a more informed, effective and bottom-up action on the ground to help achieve the NDCs, while local governments can profit from coordinated action lead by the state to achieve the national objectives – as a win-win approach. It is clear that capacity building is needed to support local governments of cities and rural areas, but also a need for access to finance, to develop robust climate action plans, to track progress of implementation and to ensure coherence with national approaches. This is new land for all governments, and the leaders are embracing partnership and cooperation between all levels of government to benefit not only local communities and their sustainable development, but also local and national climate goals.

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa will continue its participation to COP23, with participation of a high level delegation at the Local Leaders Summit on Sunday 12^th of November, and on the Global Covenant of Mayors Day at the EU Pavilion on Monday 13^th November 2017.

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) is an initiative which aims to increase the capacities of cities in the region to provide access to sufficient, sustainable, affordable and clean energy services to urban and peri-urban populations (especially the most vulnerable); CoM SSA is part of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the largest coalition of cities and local governments around the globe tackling climate change.

For more information about the initiative and the activities in support of it, please send an e-mail to: helpdesk@comssa.org

http://comssa.org/

 @CoMOSSAfrica

 Covenant of Mayors Office for Sub- Saharan Africa