FEICOM trains mayors on climate change adaptation.

This was during a two-day training workshop organised in Yaounde on February 26 and 27. It was under the theme: “Facilitating access to finance for climate change adaptation in Cameroonian municipalities”.

Experts say many parts of the country have in recent times been witnessing extreme weather conditions, resulting from change in climate.

There have been torrential rains leading to floods and landslides in Cameroon’s major cities like Yaounde, Douala, Limbe among others, often resulting in huge material damage and loss of life.

Severe droughts are also being registered in the Northern regions, affecting agriculture output while sea advances in the cities of Kribi and Limbe are said to be affecting coastal infrastructure, all of which are serious concern to both government and international community.

It is in this light that FEICOM and its partner, opted to have locally elected officials come together, share experiences on how they have been mitigating the effect of climate change and how they could do it better going forward.

Resource persons schooled the mayors on how to re-evaluate the priority adaptation projects, linking them to their urban planning and climate documents and clearly indicating the challenges and risks to which the proposed project is supposed to address. 

According to the Sub Director in the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development, Kagonbe Timothee´, who was main resource person at the workshop, African nations and their cities can only be sure of tomorrow if governance empowers populations to be resilient.

He said for this to happen, those in authority have to be empowered to be able to appropriately handle the emerging and ever evolving challenges of climate change. 

Kagonbe, who is also a climate change and environmental expert, harped on the theme of the training workshop.

He detailed that, given their mandates and proximity to citizens, decentralised local authorities playing an essential role in adapting to these impacts resulting from climate change, must be at the forefront when solutions are being sought.

FEICOM and the Covenant of Mayors in Sub Saharan Africa, an initiative of local authorities that carry out ambitious climate action, used the Yaounde workshop to take commitment to a joint approach with Cameroon municipalities to develop climate change adaptation projects.

The municipal authorities also gained knowledge on how to develop a portfolio of feasible adaptation projects, with a view to seizing funding opportunities from the Adaptation Fund and other funding partners.

The mayors are returning to their council areas, having been equipped to be able to draw up their climate change adaptation projects and plans, which must be specific to their peculiar challenges.

Going by the organisers of the workshop, a model roadmap to realising any such project should be lucid in articulating key issues like data collection, mapping, documentation, budget forecast, financing ideas, research among others.

The participants saluted the initiative of the workshop and wished to have more of such fora where they can continuously learn best practices in the mitigation of climate change in their municipalities.

It should be noted that the workshop served as the first step in a longer process in which cities will be able to develop their adaption project ideas and collaborate with FEICOM and other potential partners to create a robust portfolio of seeking for funding.