Register now to join CoM SSA at RISE Africa 2021

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa is excited to invite you to the RISE Africa Action Festival 2021. 

RISE Africa brings together thinkers, doers and enablers, and promotes art, creative expression and other ways of knowing to Inspire Action for Sustainable Cities. The event is brought together by ICLEI Africa with support from partners and is hosted online from the 24th to the 28th of May 2021.

CoM SSA will be hosting a session in partnership with Network of Locally Elected Women of Africa (REFELA) at RISE Africa, which focuses on gender and climate action. Globally, the impacts of climate change affect women and men differently, and evidence shows that women are disproportionately impacted by the negative effects of climate change, especially on the African continent. It is therefore imperative that climate finance decisions prioritise infrastructure projects that support and promote the upliftment and build the resilience of women in society.

CoM SSA and REFELA acknowledge these challenges and the critical need to promote and accelerate gender-appropriate climate action. By proposing the mainstreaming of gender-inclusivity and climate action into urban policy - and promoting inclusive urban governance - both these initiatives highlight the need to improve gender equality and women empowerment in the operational responses to climate change at the local level. 

However, cities in Sub-Saharan Africa often lack financial support for developing climate action plans and implementing climate resilient infrastructure programmes - especially when it comes to financing gender-relevant climate action necessary to reconsider and improve underinvestment in gender equality efforts in the implementation of local climate action.
CoM SSA, in partnership with REFELA, is organising a high-level event on finance for gender relevant urban climate action in African cities. Join this session to hear experts and political leaders identify gender-relevant actions and solutions to address the urban climate finance gap in African cities. The session will be held on Monday, 24 May 2021 at 15h00 CAT. 

The session will include keynote presentations and solution-orientated expert discussions to define high impact implementable actions in mainstreaming gender solutions for local climate action in Africa . There will be live simultaneous translation in English and French.

The focus areas for the session will include:

• An overview of policy context - current status, process and envisioned targets/outcome in terms of gender-relevant climate actions in cities.
• Best practices, existing solutions and strategies for guiding climate funds and developing financing mechanisms that favour infrastructure projects that increase gender equality. 
• An investigation into the feasibility and implementability of proposed funding policies that could facilitate the implementation of gender-responsive climate policies and action.
• Recommendations on how to further promote and unlock finance for gender relevant actions and solutions. 

The outcome of the dialogue is to develop action-oriented recommendations that will be integrated into the CoM SSA and REFELA initiatives.

On Tuesday, 25 May CoM SSA will be participating in a City Leaders Exchange, where political leaders from our signatory cities will come together to discuss, exchange and reflect experiences from their own cities on vital initiatives and projects which are contributing to improved sustainability in their cities. The desired outcomes are to demonstrate the collective actions of African cities, to strengthen relationships between city leaders, and to articulate specific commitments towards a variety of sustainability and equity-related initiatives. ICLEI Africa, through the RISE Africa platform, intends to follow up on these commitments, provide access to knowledge products, and broker further relationships to support their success. The RISE Africa City Leaders Exchange then becomes a consistent, annual meeting at which to share these outcomes and articulate further commitments.