Response to climate change: ACSEA promotes bottom-up approaches in Cameroon

From the 27^th to the 28^th of October 2023, the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access, drilled in Yaoundé, close to half of a hundred of participants on the nexus between locally led climate action, sustainable development and bottom-up approaches to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) implementation.

Between 1998 and 2015, according to the National Observatory on Climate Change, (ONACC), the agriculture sector, notably the crops sector, witnessed a 45 billion CFA Francs loss, in four regions of Cameroon, due to the negative effects of this global threat (climate change). In order to curb the devastating effects of this burning issue, the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access ( ACSEA), brought together 40 participants from across Cameroon in a two-day capacity building in Yaoundé, on the status of climate change adaptation policies and practices.

Women, youths, faith-based organizations, farmer groups, and indigenous people, were drilled on multi stakeholder dialogue, on nexus Locally-Led climate action, sustainable development, and people-centered Bottom-Up approaches to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

“Climate change is a global problem. The impacts of climate change are felt locally. And so, climate change adaptation projects tend to be local projects. And what we are doing with this workshop is that we are trying to promote a model of undertaking climate change actions. Number one, that climate change actions are locally Led. But that they are also anchored within the framework of sustainable development and that in the end, we put people at the center of all what we do”, Eugene Nforngwa, director of programs, ACSEA, explains.

This workshop was also aimed at equipping the participants with advocacy tools, to engage with policymakers in Cameroon; “We think that it’s a way of not only holding the government accountable for its own pledges, but a way of enhancing the performance of Cameroon. And improving transparency in the actions that we take collectively as a country to address the climate crisis. We have already developed a tool to help this civil society organizations track it. We have conducted a training on how to use this tool. Now we are moving into a phase where we will begin to deploy this tool and eventually get to a place where we can publish the outcomes of our motoring and tracking process”, Eugene Nforngwa affirmed; “For example”, he added, “if the government says we are going to plant 20 million trees as a way of addressing the climate crisis, we can come back at the end of 2 or 5 years and say, you promised to plant 20 million trees but from what we see, you have only done 5 million.”

For an efficient adaptation policy, this expert from ACSEA recommended collaboration between stakeholders; “ generally what we see, especially in parts of the country that have high climate stresses like in the northern, and parts of the northwest, there is this relationship between crop production and livestock production. And so you cannot go into that sector and do an adaptation strategy for crop production and ignoring livestock production. Because they depend on the same resources. And the actions in agriculture will definitely affect those who are producing crops as well as those who are producing livestock. So you need to be sure that your adaption strategy benefits all of these interests. In order to ensure that adaptation strategies in one group does not affect the other group negatively, the must be collaboration”, Mr. Nforngwa stressed.

Town planning was another subject matter at the center stage of this workshop, where experts from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, were represented. David Donfack, an urban resilient expert at the department of Studies, Planning and Cooperation of the said ministry highlighted that, “the Minister of Housing and Urban Development is clear that the solutions to effectively address climate change will come from the constituencies to the central government. So, at our own level, we assist them technically, financially and with the necessary required resources so as to enable them implement their local projects, designed by themselves”.

It should be recalled that this workshop organized by ACSEA to promote centered bottom-up approaches to Nationally Determine contributions (NDCs) implementation, ensuring inclusivity and equity, comes as the continuation of a capacity building seminar that held between September 12^th  to 13^th, 2023, in Yaoundé, under the theme, “Advocating for climate adaptation policies and action in cameroon”.

Elthon Djeutcha