Overview : Enhanced action to address the impacts of climate change is urgently needed in Africa. The 2015 Africa Adaptation Gap Report finds that the costs of adaptation will be between USD 7 billion and 15 billion per year by 2020, increasing thereafter. Thirty-three of the forty-seven (70%) Least Developed Countries are in Africa. African policymakers clearly recognize the importance of enhancing action to increase levels of adaptation and implement approaches to address loss and damage. While all African countries are investing significant domestic resources in the response to climate change, their NDCs indicated a significant gap that needs international support in terms of finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building. The Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) has been developed in response to a mandate from the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), to enhance action on adaptation and implementing approaches to address loss and damage in Africa. The AAI was formally launched at the twenty-first Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December of 2015 and is being further developed by AMCEN and the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) under the guidance of a Technical Working Group (TWG) established by a decision by the African Heads of State and Government at the 26th session of the African Union in Ethiopia in January 2016. The TWG is chaired by the President of AMCEN and includes representatives of the AGN, the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the African Risk Capacity (ARC). Since the launch of the AAI in 2015, the TWG in collaboration with other partners in the region carried out further elaboration of the initiative, which was articulated in an AAI Framework document. The framework was launched by AMCEN at the twenty second COP in Marrakech in 2016. |