YWCA’s Inclusive Positional Paper Ahead of ‘Finance COP29
YWCA National Organizing Secretary Deborah Olwal during a consultative dialogue forum with youths, women and minority groups at YWCA Nairobi headquarters, on Friday. PHOTO: YWCA
By Ken Osoro
Why must there be a positional paper that enjoins suggestions from both state and non state actors Pre-COP29? Well, a positional paper stipulates key issues at stake and guides the lead negotiator in championing for the interest of Kenyans in the Conference of the Parties, 29th session to be held Baku between November 11 and 22.
COP29 has been billed as a ‘finance COP’ seeing to it an opportunity for close to 198 countries that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to align climate finance strategies with the current global needs to suit country’s financial resources including loans, grants and budgetary allocations for climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
As COP29 gears up, Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) hosted an all inclusive consultative dialogue to develop a positional paper that will shape up and align the country’s position in the COP negotiations.
The country’s positional paper will be drafted later this week, and it will encompass every ideas and suggestions from both private and public sectors.
The consultative forum held on Friday last week brought together set of diverse individuals across the country drawn from Suba, Mandera, Nairobi and other regions, to deliberate on COP29 priority areas on matters youth youth women and minority groups.
Rural women, girls, youths and marginalized groups, most of who were present in the consultative forum, are adversely affected by climate change, yet they have contributed and benefited the least to and from the climate crises allocated funding. The mentioned vulnerable groups are also often left out of the climate change discussions.
The upcoming‘Finance COP’ has instigated discussions on climate finance. In the consultative dialogue, the lobby groups decried an exclusive dialogue that has kicked aside youth, women and marginalized groups from taking part in climate global discussions to shape opinions and bring about change more so in the climate finance.
COP27 and COP28 called on developed countries to increase bilateral climate finance and to increase support for climate finance mechanisms like the Green Climate Fund.
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Debt- for- climate-swap was also adopted to assist developing countries, Kenya included, in receiving favourable conditions on external financing aimed at specific conservation, or climate related projects within those countries.
The 50- day countdown to global climate conference scheduled for November 11, in Baku, Azerbaijan, is another key moment for representatives to make progress on climate commitments through negotiations that will be shaped up by convincing positional papers from various states.
This forms the need and the basis to collectively develop a positional paper that will then serve as the binding document that will push for the interest of all parties in the awaited global summit.
Speaking during the mentioned consultative forum, Fred Ouma who is the Kenya Lead Negotiator on transparency rallied both state and non state actors to embrace a collective synergy in developing a strong positional paper that will champion for the interest of every Kenya especially youth, women and marginalized groups in the COP29global summit.
He urged non-governmental organizations to align their key priority areas with the government’s climate induction plan to see to it that all prioritized areas including climate finance are well championed for.
“In order to facilitate the implementation of NDC Act up to 2030 period in line with our development agenda, Kenya has adopted a five-year national climate induction planning process prioritize need. Kenya has developed the third national climate plan.”
Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is where countries set targets for mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and for adapting to climate impacts. Kenya submitted.
The plan that Ouma highlighted define how to reach the targets, and elaborate systems to monitor and verify progress of the plans set on the aforesaid emissions.
Additionally, while championing for inclusion of youth, women and marginalized communities in this year’s climate finance global summit, Debora Olwal who is the YWCA National General Secretary emphasized on the need to incorporate these groups in developing every positional paper that will include their interests and shape policies for the better good of what they termed as neglected group that encompass women, youth and minority groups.
“Youth, women and marginalized communities are directly affected by climate change but we have realized that nobody remembers them. This special group has often been left behind,” she averred.
She rallied COP representatives to give a much focus on how indigenous women are directly affected by climate change and lobby for reforms in the global financial regulations to encourage climate funding and investment in Africa.
Amid a much awaited COP29, YWCA is solely focusing on educating and informing the youths, women and indigenous communities about their role through partnerships and collaborations, community learning on mitigation and adaptation, and advancing their call for change. The organization insists that every voice counts.
In this regard, YWCA has developed various strategic area of focus including a key focus on climate change to enhance the capacity of African youth, women and and other marginalized communities.
The organization advocates for climate policies that prioritize youths, women rights and leadership. This is a core strategic area that ensures youth and women take leadership roles in climate decision making spaces, this includes in the COP sessions and other climate summits as detailed by the YWCA National General Secretary.
The most recent COP, COP28, held last year in Dubai was the largest attended climate summit. It convened over 97,000 delegates, and more than 150 heads of state, along with negotiators, business entrepreneurs and leaders and non state actors from private sectors across the globe.
In COP28, country’s agreed on targets for the Global Goal on Adaptation and its framework. This would help the world identify how it gets to a climate resilient future and how to assess country’s efforts on climate resilience.
Global Stock Take, which put forward a plan for countries to act on transitioning away from fossil fuel to reach net zero and encourage economy- wide nationally determined climate plan, was adopted.
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