Presentation of practices from 11 African countries to combat climate change
With the help of eLankidetza-Basque Agency for Development Cooperation, the African Institute for Economic and Social Development Inades-Formation held a virtual conference on 23 and 24 June, with more than fifty people participating, both from the Basque Country and African and European countries. During the conference, results of a study about 50 good practices in adaptation to climate change were shown, as well as practices of inclusive rural governance in 11 African countries.
According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in 2019, more than three million people in Sub-Saharan Africa had to move internally due to climate reasons. In the words of Pascal Baridomo, programme director of Inades-Formation, “climate change causes floods and droughts, fires, loss of woodlands and biodiversity, forced migrations and violent conflicts related to the control of resources.”
During the conference, Inades-Formation presented some of the 50 experiences analysed. Among these, we can highlight the use of alternative fuels such as shea butter or cashew nutshell bricks in Rwanda; the creation of planting pits or zaipits in dry areas of Kenya; community protection of forest areas in order to be able to obtain food sustainably in Burkina Faso and the creation of a community early alert system for floods in Togo.
The director of eLankidetza, Paul Ortega, said, “with this type of meeting, we want to boost the relationship and mutually-shared knowledge between Basque and African agents, given that, to confront global problems like climate change, it is fundamental to discover adaptation practices and to exchange experiences.”
The meeting ended with a speech by Héloise Chicou, advisor for the Regions4 international network. This is a platform representing regional governments throughout the world before international organisations in matters relating to biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development.
Inades-Formation is an association that has been promoting fair and sustainable development in Africa since 1962. It has a presence in several African countries and can boast wide experience in research involving matters such as climate change and inclusive territorial development. eLankidetza began to collaborate with the African association in 2018, resulting in the study on good practices presented at the conference.
