29 July 2019, Niamey, Niger - A six-day training workshop marked the launch of the West African Hub. The project, jointly developed by UN CC:Learn/UNITAR and AGRHYMET Regional Center (ARC), aims at strengthening the capacities and skills of future and current male and female professionals on climate change, through a regional hub involving 13 countries from the Sahel.

The South-South co-operation model adopted by UN CC:Learn brings together 13 CILSS countries currently facing the common problems of drought and desertification, agricultural vulnerability and increasing food insecurity. The activities of the West African Hub include regional workshops, support for the development of project proposals in the field of climate change learning, and preparation of learning resources adapted to the specific context of West Africa. 

The workshop brought together 11 West African member countries of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). One of the objectives was to strengthen the capacities of the 13 Sahelian focal points on climate finance and the Notification and Verification Systems (MRV) while integrating a gender perspective. Action Focal Points for Climate Empowerment (ACE) and Gender Focal Points are represented in the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Chad. The workshop also facilitated identifying a common learning approach on climate change for the Sahel region, through knowledge sharing, and particularly the lessons learned from the development of national strategies for climate change learning in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The training will provide the country representatives with the knowledge and skills to create regional bankable projects integrating a well-designed climate change learning approach in their respective countries.

This work is part of the implementation framework of Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) and the Doha Work Program on Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in agreement with Article 12 of the Paris Agreement.

The Regional Platform in West Africa is the result of a Partnership Agreement between the AGRHYMET Regional Center (ARC) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), supported by the UN CC:Learn program, and financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).