APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has announced the launch of the Climate Challenge Leadership Programme which aims to build a critical mass of African leaders able to negotiate and implement climate change policies and projects.
A collaboration between AFC and United Kingdom-based leadership development organisation Common Purpose, the Climate Challenge Leadership Programme, which would be launched later this year, is expected to offer Africa the opportunity to participate as an equal partner in global efforts to address the climate crisis.
It aims to “strengthen the capacity of a cohort of 50 dynamic emerging leaders from Africa and the rest of the world, who – as they progress in their careers – will build bridges between the global North and South and find new ways to address the environmental crisis.”
“The programme will be fertile ground for innovative solutions to be crafted by the next generation of leaders from Africa and beyond,” AFC president and chief executive Samaila Zubairu said.
He added: “For far too long, Africa has been viewed by the rest of the world as a place of ‘problems’ – and yet Africa holds the solutions to many of the fundamental problems facing the world today, particularly in relation to climate change.”
He said programme is expected to result in the development “of a rising generation of leaders from Africa and beyond who are enabled and empowered to offer global solutions to the climate challenge.”
“In order to address the climate crisis, we need leaders who can cross boundaries and collaborate to transform the systems that support our way of life,” Common Purpose Charitable Trust (UK) chief executive Adirupa Sengupta said.
The programme is being funded by the Nigeria-based AFC and would be run by Common Purpose.
The programme is targeting emerging leaders with at least five years of professional experience and drawn from different sectors, countries, and communities across Africa, the wider global South and the global North.
The announcement of the programme comes as Africa and other parts of the world have been feeling mounting pressure to reduce carbon emissions and regenerate biodiversity due to the global climate crisis.
Africa is paying the highest price for a global crisis that has largely been triggered by the developed world.
“Africa, for example, produces less than 3.8 percent of carbon emissions, yet the continent has been disproportionately impacted by climate change, with frequent droughts, heavy rains and severe heatwaves,” AFC said in a statement.
It added: “Conversely, many of the highest emitting nations are feeling relatively little impact, undermining the sense of urgency.”
JN/APA