Zimbabwe National Climate Change Learning Strategy Validation Workshop
Climate change is real and its happening. The impacts of climate change in Zimbabwe are likely to stall the country’s development endeavours posing serious risks to the main economic sectors. Tackling this challenge requires new ways of thinking, new approaches to development and new partnerships across sectors, nations and societies. In 1992, countries endorsed an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as a framework for international cooperation to combat climate change. In 2015, the Paris Agreement was endorsed and it builds on the work undertaken under the UNFCCC, chatting a new course of global action to combat climate change. Zimbabwe, as an active Party in climate change management, is a Party to both the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.
In 2019, Zimbabwe was admitted into the United Nations Climate Change Learning Partnership Programme for Southern Africa and received a grant for the development of a National Climate Change Learning Strategy. Zimbabwe is among other countries in the southern African region, which received this grant, other countries include Malawi and Zambia. The grant is from the Swiss Development Cooperation through the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The grant supports the strengthening of individual and institutional capacities to address climate change.
The Government of Zimbabwe through the Climate Change Management Department held a National Inception and Planning Workshop from the 21st to the 22nd of October 2019 to discuss the Strategy Development Process with Stakeholders and agree on the Terms of Reference. A Mid-term workshop for the project was organised and held from the 13th to the 14th of February 2020 to discuss possible actions to be included in the Action Plan. The workshop provided an opportunity to review and prioritize proposed actions. The Government went on to procure a consultant to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and an Implementation Plan for the National Climate Learning Strategy. The work from the consultant will feed into the Strategy so that a robust document with clear indicators and measurable targets is produced.
The main objective of the workshop was for stakeholders to validate the draft National Climate Change Learning Strategy to deliver climate change learning and capacity development in the country.
Specific objectives were to:
i. discuss and validate the National Climate Change Learning Strategy and check whether its incorporating all stakeholders’ inputs;
ii. review the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and an Implementation Plan for the Learning Strategy;
iii. discuss next steps on the implementation of priority actions and financial plan for the Learning Strategy