Climate Change Adaptation : African Youth Demand Increased, Consistent Funding

The inaugural African Youth Forum on Climate Change Adaptation Financing, YOFAFA, ended in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde on Saturday, November 18, 2023. The three-day event was attended onsite by 150 youths from 30 African countries, and 2,000 others online. YOFAFA was jointly organized by the Cameroonian Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, MINEPDED. As well as the Africa Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access, ACSEA, and the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, PACJA.
Presenting the Yaounde Call, delegates urged industrialized countries and other big polluters to take urgent steps to increase adaptation financing by more than double by 2025. In 2019 and 2020, only $11.4 billion was committed to climate adaptation finance in Africa, compared to the estimated $52.7 billion needed annually by the continent until 2030. African youth demanded better access to grants-based, predictable adaptation financing; rather than loans.
Forum participants requested improved effectiveness and efficiency of adaptation funding through a participatory and inclusive approach. Similarly, they called for increase in innovation and adaptation financing through new and emerging sources and instruments of funding. The youth appealed for more coherence and coordination in adaptation financing by harmonising the policies and standards of funding sources and channels. Finally, they pushed for a robust, a...