Communique Issued At The End Of The 1st General Meeting Of The Civil Society Organisations On SDG 13
We, the members of the Civil Society Organisations Platform on Sustainable Development Goal 13 (CSOs SDG 13) Sub-Platform, in furtherance of our firm commitment to support national development processes led by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), resolved at our 1st General Meeting held at Ampomaah hotel in Accra which discussed issues bothering on SDG 13 including ways of supporting its achievement. The targets set under SDG 13 are as follows:
· Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. · Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning · Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. · Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible. · Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities
While we commend government for:
1. The efforts made in ensuring the mainstreaming of climate change issues in our national development plans
2. Promoting policy coherence between the SDG 13 and our development frameworks with enhanced coordination with the NDPC.
3. Enhanced collaboration with civil society on national climate change issues
4. The development of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (Gh-NDCs) from 2020 – 2030.
5. The efforts made in supporting Ecobank Ghana Ltd and Social Investment Fund (SIF) to becoming Accredited Entities to the GCF
6. The efforts towards accessing funds from the GCF through the development of proposals to mitigate the impact of climate change.
7. Admitting all National Accredited CSOs to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) unto the Technical Advisory Committee at the Ministry of Finance.
We note that, there still remain major concerns and/or challenges that need to be addressed. These include:
1. The need for greater involvement of stakeholders including civil society in national climate change discourse.
2. Deepening inclusion of women, youth and persons with disability in climate change processes especially in marginalised communities in line with the principles of gender equality and social inclusion.
3. Committing to the establishment of the Ghana Green Fund and putting in place sustainable means of running the Fund.
4. Revisiting the CSO-Government consultation framework developed by the Ministry of Finance for the Natural Resources and Environment Sector during the Natural Resource and Environmental Governance (NREG) program to ensure the active participation of civil society in the governance of the NRE sector.
5. Enforcement of climate change issues at the district level as part of performance assessment of the Medium Term Development Plans (MTDPs)
6. Reconsidering the issue of carbon offsetting as eco system functionality may be compromised in the carbon financing agreement.
7. The worrying nature of the SDG Indicator Baseline report on Goal 13 with respect to very limited data.
We, the CSOs SDG 13 sub-platform are committed to:
1. Support government in the monitoring, verification and evaluation processes to addressing issues of data gaps on climate change.
2. Mainstream climate change issues in our respective work plans.
3. Deepen advocacy on climate change processes and interventions
Issued in Accra on 29th October 2018
About the CSOs SDG 13 Sub-Platform:
The sub-platform is a civil society coalition convened by Kasa Initiative Ghana and co-convened by CARE International, Ghana. It is made up of over 110 membership base with a core aim of actively participating in Ghana’s climate change agenda as well as providing a space for learning and sharing among members.
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