Outcome 17: Participation of African governments in environmental finance118
Relevance The regional programme’s support to mainstreaming energy, environment and climate change into the development processes of the continent, addressed relevant emerging global, regional and national issues. Although Africa has experienced considerable improvement in its economic development in recent years, progress continues to be threatened by low levels of access to sustainable energy, continued and in some cases increasing loss of ecosystems, and the negative impacts of climate change. Energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the biggest challenges to achieving sustainable development and the MDGs. Despite the continent’s vast energy resources, it is estimated that one out of two residents of sub-Saharan Africa, and as many as nine out of ten in rural regions, do not have access to modern energy sources. Without access to affordable and sustainable energy, rural communities in Africa will not be able to improve the production of goods and services and enhance their economic well-being. As a result, poverty will remain an endemic problem. The regional programme support to enhance the capacities of regional institutions to deliver energy services responded to NEPAD’s programme of action for energy, which seeks to achieve universal access to sustainable energy on the continent by 2040. The programme was also aligned with the ECOWAS ‘White Paper for a Regional Policy’ on increasing access to energy services. The White Paper was developed with support from UNDP under the previous regional programme and approved in 2006. The EAC energy access
strategy was then approved by EAC Ministers of Energy in 2007. The regional programme also continued to build on the multifunctional platform (MFP) approach, initially piloted by UNDP and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in the mid-nineties. The approach is now implemented in several countries (primarily ECOWAS Member States) and benefits rural women in particular. With respect to the environment, the ‘Millennium Assessment Report 2005’ pointed to the widespread destruction of Africa’s ecosystems due to unsustainable use by human beings. The destruction of ecosystems compromises human well-being, especially that of the continent’s poor who depend on natural resources capital for their survival. The consequences of the human dimension of ecosystem losses are compounded by the predicted adverse impacts of climate change on human health, agricultural production and water availability. Although international mechanisms have been put in place to finance response strategies to the impacts of climate change through multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), due to limited human capacity, African countries have generally failed to take full advantage of these facilities. The regional programme supported initiatives that were aligned with the programmes of action of the African Union, RECs and NEPAD in promoting sustainable the use of natural resources as strategies for poverty alleviation. The programme also supported initiatives that were aligned to the UNFCCC Bali Road Map, and sought to address a range of additional issues including enhancement of African capacities for participation in the post-Kyoto climate change regime and negotiations for increased carbon/environment financing.
118 This
second outcome does not appear in Atlas. There are two main interventions in this focus area, one focusing primarily on energy, contributing to outcome 16, and one focusing on environment and climate change issues, including some energy issues, which contributes to both outcomes, according to the project documents.
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CHAPTER 3. CONTRIBUTION OF THE UNDP REGIONAL PROGRAMME TO DEVELOPMENT RESULTS