RCC East and Southern Africa in 2024

Credit: UN Climate Change

In 2024, the Regional Collaboration Centres (RCCs) continued to support countries in achieving climate goals under the Paris Agreement with a view to bridging regional action with global ambition.

Their efforts have primarily focused on technical assistance and capacity building, facilitating access to support for the development and submission of NDCs 3.0 and advancing participation in Article 6 under the Paris Agreement. The RCCs have worked closely with national governments, private sector actors, and multilateral institutions to provide trainings, knowledge-sharing opportunities, and policy guidance tailored to regional needs. They have strengthened support towards adaptation related issues, including the formulation of implementable National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and transformational adaptation. The RCCs also supported stakeholders in their endeavors to access climate finance to implement their projects, and to prepare their Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF).

In this context, RCC East and Southern Africa prioritized three main areas of work - see below their highlights. For more details, please visit the RCC EASA webpage.

1. Promoting readiness for Article 6 implementation, by fostering green entrepreneurship across the continent, focusing on empowering women and youth.

RCC East and Southern Africa (EASA) advanced readiness for Article 6 implementation by

Credit: Abhilash Jacob/Pixabay

fostering green entrepreneurship across the continent, with a strong focus on empowering women and youth. Over 30 green innovators—more than half of them women—were supported across key mitigation sectors such as smart agriculture, renewable energy, climate action, water, and waste management. These innovators received seed funding and participated in a 6-month incubation and 3-month post-incubation program that provided technical training, mentorship, and access to tech hubs, enabling them to develop scalable, results-based initiatives aligned with Article 6. A second program phase is planned for 2025 to scale this gender- and youth-inclusive model. RCC EASA also held three targeted webinars for women entrepreneurs, equipping them with tools to engage in carbon markets and drive Africa’s green transition. RCC EASA also strengthened stakeholder capacity through a regional webinar on emerging green markets and a workshop on the CDM transition. Further, RCC EASA contributed to translating policy into action with a keynote address at the East Africa Carbon Markets Forum.

2. Strengthening country capacity on the preparation of National Adaptation Plans by continuous engagement to identify gaps and needs.

RCC East and Southern Africa (EASA) strengthened country capacity in National Adaptation

Credit: difisher/Pixabay

Plan (NAP) processes through targeted training and continuous engagement. A month-long virtual training brought together participants nominated by UNFCCC national focal points from 19 countries, with an average of 60 attendees per session. The training covered UNFCCC processes, climate diplomacy, and gender integration in international climate governance, including mandates such as the enhanced 5-year Lima Work Program on Gender. The sessions built negotiation skills, deepened understanding of gender mainstreaming in adaptation, and prepared participants to contribute meaningfully to gender-responsive climate policy. To support NAP progress, RCC EASA followed up on country responses to the NAP survey and provided inputs for the regional progress report. The Centre also facilitated the participation of Lesotho and South Sudan in regional dialogues, enabling them to share national experiences, highlight key implementation gaps, and outline specific support needs. This work advanced adaptive capacity and strengthened regional collaboration in progressing NAP development and implementation.

3. Supporting Capacity Building on NDC 3.0, including work on integrating the Gender dimension in the formulation of NDCs.

RCC East and Southern Africa (EASA) supported capacity building on NDC 3.0 by organizing

Credit: succo/Pixabay

and facilitating regional trainings, webinars, and workshops to strengthen institutional and technical capacity across Sub-Saharan Africa. In partnership with the School of Policy and Governance, RCC EASA convened a high-level training for policy makers and sector experts from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, focusing on mainstreaming climate policies into national planning with emphasis on climate justice, gender, and social inclusion. RCC EASA also facilitated peer-learning workshops for national gender climate focal points and NDC focal points from 19 countries, resulting in country-specific step-by-step guides for integrating gender into NDCs. Additionally, RCC EASA coordinated webinars with Parties and partners on climate data, investment planning, and available support for NDC implementation. In collaboration with RCC West and Central Africa, they supported validation of LT-LEDS guidance for Africa and led a session on inclusivity in NDC development at the Africa Regional Forum. This work strengthened gender-responsive and inclusive NDC 3.0 processes in the region.

Catch a glimpse of the RCCs’ efforts and milestones in action in this video.

RCC East and Southern Africa's Partners: in their own words.

Benard Paul Mono, Ag. Director General East African Development Bank

East African Development Bank (EADB) has continued with the collaboration with the UNFCCC on the aspects related to Climate Change since 2013. The Regional Collaboration Centre for the East and Southern Africa (RCC ESA), and the Eastern Africa Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance, are hosted at the Bank’s Head Office in Kampala.

Climate change is posing the greatest challenges in the world today affecting businesses due to its negative impacts. The Bank operates within the East African region covering the four Member States; Kenya Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, whose economies rely greatly on rain-fed agriculture. The negative effects of climate change can be overcome when we deploy affordable and innovative climate financing instruments such as blended finance, grants, crowd-funding, syndication, guarantees, and insurance, among others, to support the targeted businesses to adapt and mitigate the impacts of Climate Change within the region.

The Bank has established a strong collaboration with the UNFCCC, the Member States, development partners and climate funders to spearhead interventions for climate change in the region. Climate change is one of the Bank’s focus area.

In 2024, through this collaboration, a number of achievements were realised. The Bank participated in a number of high-level engagements such as participation at COP29 events organised by the UNFCCC, networking with other key funders like the Adaptation Fund and GCF.

The Bank is proud of the successful completion of the African Climate Change Finance/ African Development Bank (ACCF/AfDB) project whereby the Bank supported the implementation of grant received in July 2021. The RCC EASA is now at the final phase of preparing the project completion report for the project which was aimed at building the capacity of women negotiators in the East and Southern Africa. The Bank will support any future collaboration to enhance the operations of the RCC ESA in the region.

There is no doubt, RCC’s interventions have made considerable impacts to the EADB Member States, and beyond covering all the 19 countries where it is operating, and they need to be supported from both fronts to ensure more results are achieved by maintaining a consistent workforce for sustainability of the projects they are implementing according to the different workstreams.

The Bank remains committed to ensuring the collaboration is strengthened for the benefits of both institutions while making positive impacts to the East and Southern Africa region.

Picture of Lisa Lim Ah Ken, Senior Climate Action Specialist, International Organization for Migration

Lisa Lim Ah Ken, Senior Climate Action Specialist, IOM Special Liaison Office to the AU and UNECA

The partnership between IOM and RCC EASA started in earnest with the development of the Kampala Ministerial Declaration on migration, environment and climate change (KDMECC) in 2022, which was the first policy framework on the nexus of migration, environment and climate change, globally. The RCC’s vision and commitment to support this innovative process has been deeply appreciated and the outcome is that the KDMECC is now advancing through the AU’s processes and organs with the view to becoming the first AU Declaration on migration and climate change.

As the integration of human mobility in the UNFCCC climate change tracks and processes has continued to grow in interest on the African continent, championed by both the AGN and the LDC, the partnership has continued to grow in strength thanks to the excellent trust and collaboration between both organizations. There have been a great many joint events over the past 2/3yrs ranging from capacity building workshops, provision of technical support for policy development, information sharing and representational events and joint studies. IOM has appreciated the timely and robust technical support provided by RCC EASA ranging from information sharing and advice on UNFCCC processes to supporting IOM workshops and other initiatives with national governments

Ritah Rukundo, Project Manager, Global carbon Markets, Energy and Climate Cluster, GIZ

Since 2014, the GIZ Global Carbon Market (GCM) project Uganda (on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) has been proud to collaborate with the UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre for East and Southern Africa (RCC EAS) to enhance stakeholder participation in carbon market mechanisms across the region.

During a carbon pricing training in February 2024, stakeholders appreciated the joint effort to break down this complex topic for informed decision-making, particularly the use of the Carbon Pricing Incidence Calculator (CPIC) to assess the economic and social impacts of carbon pricing.

As countries work to transition CDM projects to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the GIZ GCM, RCC EAS, and the Climate Finance Innovators projects have supported nations like Uganda in developing criteria to evaluate transition requests from existing CDM activities or Programmes of Activities (PoAs) into Article 6.4.

The steering of the Eastern Africa Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance continues to serve as a key unifying force for the RCC EAS and GIZ GCM’s activities. The regional approach has proven effective in strengthening cooperation among countries and fostering learning and strategic alignment on emerging topics such as Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.