African Civil Society Engagement with COP 17: One Step Closer to an African Climate Change and Development Agenda - COP 17

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November 11, 2011
Nancy Kachingwe

 In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.

– Wangari Maathai, Oslo, 10 December 2004

On 9 November the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) was due to begin on a journey traversing ten countries from Burundi to Durban, on the Trans African Caravan of Hope. The caravan is an indication that African civil society is upping its game in climate change mobilisation.[1] It is a welcome development as it is an umbrella mobilisation involving communities, faith-based organisations, journalists, youth movements and many other civil society formations to link with communities, raise awareness and work together on the question of Africa and climate change.

As with the Trans African Caravan, civil society in Africa (by this I refer to social justice and rights movements) still has a long way to go to fully develop work on climate change. It has been a slow shift to understanding that climate change is not simply an environmental issue, but rather a developmental question that pervades every aspect of our lives. In this sense, holding the COP on African soil will have been useful in galvanising organisations beyond the environmental sector. Throughout this year, youth, women’s, human rights, land rights, and economic justice organisations, churches and trade unions across the continent have been organising to raise awareness among their constituencies and make inputs to the Durban summit. Indications are that Durban should be a good showing of African civil society, joining with their colleagues from across the globe. High profile Africans, starting with South Africa’s very own Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, have also lent their name to the different causes that the movements are bringing to Durban. 

Keeping the momentum going

The UNFCCC conferences have been drawing growing numbers from Africa, but these have tended to run out of steam with the last departing plane of delegates. A visit to a number of civil society and climate change websites shows how difficult it has been to sustain work beyond one-off projects. Organisations hold workshops and set up websites for one COP or another (Poznan, Copenhagen, Cancun), and the posts end once that project is finished (I won’t mention names, but I did do a check!). For COP 17, churches, trade unions and others have been getting busy, but it is very uncertain whether they will be able to keep the momentum, except where climate change is their primary objective. The reasons for this are understandable: the technical capacity and human resources required to follow negotiations are beyond the means of most African NGOs. Compared to their Asian and Latin American counterparts, African organisations that follow the negotiations between conferences (through the intersessionals) are few.[2] PACJA has tended to represent the African civil society voice; other African participants in UNFCCC negotiations are present as organisational or staff members of international coalitions and NGOs.

An African civil society agenda for climate change and development

Keeping the momentum is not the only challenge. Despite great enthusiasm for working on climate change, African civil society has yet to develop a common set of issues – a defining narrative – and agenda for action. There are no clear poles of intellectual leadership for the different constituencies that are slowly developing around climate change. It is somewhat problematic that many groups’ understanding of the global negotiations is for now shaped by South–South or North–South partnerships (or worse still, the World Bank!). As more civil society groups fill up the climate change terrain, the range of climate change concerns that they bring to the table will need joining up. Consolidating an African civil society agenda on climate change will require an articulation of a range of issues and approaches between actors with different belief systems and ideologies. Some groups will want to tackle climate change as an apolitical technical question emphasising adaptation, finance and technology measures; other groups are approaching the negotiations from a much more politicised perspective, tackling issues of social justice, human rights, environmental and resource rights, equity and international political economy. Then again, there are the sectoral concerns that come into play, each with its own set of (often disconnected) interest groups: agriculture, forestry, fisheries desertification, water, mining, health, education, labour. It is important that Durban starts a process of exchange between groups to put together a common development agenda on climate change. It is not likely that we will all agree, but single-issue approaches in sectoral silos will not help either.[3]

Linking national struggles to global negotiations

Environmental organisations that have been the longest in the game also need to deal with tensions between emphasis on international responsibilities for climate change and their own national governments’ appalling environmental records. In South Africa, for example, this tension does not seem to be resolved – which struggles do we want to see translated to into global treaties, and which should we reserve for national policy until the climate culprits are ready to come to the party? How do we address the problem of governments doing the right thing in the negotiations and the wrong thing at home? It would serve African civil society organisations well to share experiences on these questions as they develop their strategies.

Developing an African game plan for UNFCCC

It is a matter of concern that the ‘softer’ issues of climate change predominate civil society work on climate change in Africa. Because Africa will be the hardest hit, the tendency has been to focus on managing the impacts of climate change (adaptation, finance and technology) rather than tackling the difficult problem of getting historical polluters to reduce emissions. Critically, civil society has little to offer in terms of suggestions on how Africa should be playing the bio-diplomacy game. We are in the fortunate position (for once) of not saying ‘no’ to a global treaty but rather saying ‘please’. But what should Africa do, if our very reasonable demands are not met? Civil society will be kept busy working on funding to support community adaptation. But we have to work simultaneously to shape the African Group’s stance in response to the intransigence of historical polluters in the North. We need to show more creativity, imagination and pro-activeness than our governments have shown so far, particularly if we end up with a non-deal. Unpacking UNFCCC speak for communities is a good start. Once that is done, citizens will be more than capable of telling their governments what course of action to take if nothing is achieved in global negotiations. Should we withdraw from the UNFCCC? Should we decide to impose a moratorium on future trade and investment relations with countries that are causing us so much harm without taking responsibility? If the situation is that desperate for Africa, can we afford another 17 years of negotiations? We need accountability from our governments on these questions; every day the news on climate gets worse, but we do not see a commensurate acceleration in the pace of negotiations.

The PACJA caravan has taken on an admirable endeavour. Their positions outline both the power and practical issues in a balanced way, and they have taken it upon themselves to organise a road trip across thousands of kilometres to raise awareness for their cause. As I sit in the comfort of my home, I am in no position to trivialise this action – I am supporting it on Facebook, Twitter and every other means that I can (you can also sign their petition on www.pacja.org). But we need caravans in all (now) 53 countries of the continent, all through the year. Most importantly, supporting this effort requires that those of us who are new to climate change do the hard work of understanding the issues and coming up with African solutions.

It is not clear what Durban will deliver, but COP 17 is an opportunity for African civil society to rally forces and come to some kind of agreement on how we can proceed to work in unity. South African civil society are doing all they can to welcome their brothers and sisters from the continent,[4] precisely with this in mind. If we use the opportunity for pan-African civil society debate, networking and strategising, we will have been part of the Trans-African Caravan of Hope.

Nancy Kachingwe currently works with the Land Access Movement of South Africa as a Policy and Advocacy Strategy Advisor. She specializes in public policy, women's land rights and rural development and international development cooperation.


[1] Follow the caravan on Twitter: @caravanofhope11.

[2] UNFCCC provides lists of participants for all meetings online at www.unfccc.int.

[3] Recently, Pambazuka News worked with African Agenda (a publication of Third World Network Africa) to produce a special edition on the issues at play for COP 17. It is available at www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/555.

[4] For updates from the COP 17 Civil Society Organising Committee, go to cop17insouthafrica.wordpress.com or www.c17.org.za.