Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Financing Fellowship WEBINAR

The African Research & Impact Network (ARIN) in collaboration with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (FS) held a webinar session on the 3rd of June, 2020. The webinar was aimed at introducing an exciting fellowship on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Financing. The fellowship is an initiative funded by the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) and aims to build up capacities of applied researchers and policy makers from across Africa( Anglophone and Francophone) on NDC financing strategies in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Background: Governments across the world are recognizing that climate change is already affecting the economic and social development of vulnerable communities and that mitigation and adaptation is a necessary response to the impacts. As the effects increase in severity and frequency, national governments are developing policies and management systems to allocate financial resources in order to hamper climate change impacts. African countries in particular face the dual challenges of high vulnerability to climate change and limited capacity for effective climate action.

The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to address the growing climate change challenge. Under the Paris Agreement, countries submitted national climate plans, officially known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Research by the Frankfurt School (FS) and the African Research & Impact Network (ARIN) demonstrates that in these climate action plans, most developing countries - including many African countries - make their mitigation and adaptation contributions conditional upon receiving international support (finance, technology transfer and/or capacity building). While provision of support for NDC implementation could enhance equity among countries, the feasibility of NDC implementation might be challenged by the large number of conditional NDCs. Moreover, climate action has been considered within the broader context of sustainable development. This brings into sharp focus the need to leverage innovative approaches for financing NDCs.

In this context, the FS and ARIN are implementing the Bilingual NDC Financing Fellowship Programme to support to build up capacities and leadership to develop sound policies to mobilise funding and financial resources for NDCs of African countries (public and private, national and international funding) – particularly mobilizing finance, developing and implanting NDC investments plans and tracking progress in implementation. Through the Fellowship Programme, technical understanding has been created and exchanged related to a topic of high relevance to the sustainable (economic) growth of many countries. By following a bilingual approach, fellowships will be awarded to Anglophone as well as Francophone candidates from Sub-Saharan Africa (applications from Lusophone candidates are also welcomed).

Partners:
Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN): https://www.arin-africa.org/
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management: www.frankfurt-school.de/idrc/ndcffp
Funder:
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC): www.idrc.ca/en