A write-up from the first Africa4Resilience Consortium webinar
The inaugural Africa4Resilience Consortium webinar brought together over 80 participants for Africa's first continent-wide discussion on what COP30's Belém outcomes mean. Convened by Africa4Resilience partners, Trust Africa. PACJA, Africa Climate Foundation, and LIFE-AR, the session revealed both progress and persistent challenges in Africa's climate journey.
A time for action
Dr. Ebrima Sall of Trust Africa set the urgent context:
"Across Africa, communities are already facing the lived realities of climate change - with floods and droughts, displacement, growing economic vulnerabilities. Those who contribute the least to global emissions are bearing some of the heaviest impacts."
He emphasized that no single institution can deliver the required transformation alone, highlighting Africa4Resilience's unique focus on African regranting organizations as "bridges between global resources and local realities."
Indicators for action
The Global Goal on Adaptation's 59 indicators from Belém drew cautious optimism from Kulthoum Motsumi of the Africa Group of Negotiators. While welcoming the reintroduction of finance language, she warned against the GGA becoming mere reporting exercise:
"We don't want to be doing reporting for no reason. We want to be doing reporting because it will actually lead to more action, and also more resources that will be flowing."
There is an urgency for African countries and organisations to engage with the indicators, as they can be a useful tool to demonstrate the high costs of climate inaction.
A transition into prosperity
Eugene Nforngwa from PACJA insisted on the need to reframe Africa's Just Transition. "Africa is not transitioning from a high-carbon economy. It is transitioning from a low-carbon economy, but also from energy poverty," he argued.
His message was stark:
"Global Just Transition narratives, if we are not adapting them to the context of Africa, could unintentionally become instruments of injustice in Africa by constraining development pathways without providing viable alternatives."
He called for Africa's transition to be i) focussed on protecting and upgrading livelihoods, ii) anchored in productive sectors so it creates jobs and value chains, and iii) supporting the rise of domestic industries across the continent -
"a transition into prosperity, not a transition away from fossil fuels."
A critical funding gap
Edwin Obiero from LIFE-AR highlighted the adaptation finance crisis: while the Glasgow commitment to double adaptation funding to $40 billion remains unmet, Belém's pledge to triple it to $120 billion raises concerns about blending public and private sources for debt-burdened LDCs. More critically,
"If 18% of the global amount reaches LDCs, only 10% of what's received reaches the local level. So there's a really big problem, because that is where the needs are."
Quality of finance also matters: for adaptation, country need long-term, systemic and predictable funds rather than projectised, sectoral support.
What’s next
The session revealed a critical distinction: Africa has maintained a common position for 20 years but lacks a common strategy. As the continent prepares for COP32 in Addis Ababa in 2027, the call is clear: to move from frameworks to action, from global solidarity hopes to African solidarity building, and from scattered efforts to strategic collective agency.
This webinar was the first of the Africa Resilience Dialogues. Watch out for the upcoming webinar, in May, focusing on national level interventions.
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