Africa’s capacity to effectively tackle climate change lies in the legislative actions of each country. Parliaments play a major role in climate action through oversight. Traditionally, many African parliaments would engage in many endless debates over an issue that requires speedy action, slowing down their oversight role. However, we have moved beyond an era of digressive policy debates toward actionable and impactful solutions. It’s the digital era, an era of smart, data-driven and AI powered innovations that scale up performance of legislators. Meet the Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool (CMAT) cocreated by the AGNES and respective African Parliaments to reshape how parliamentarians perform their oversight role in climate action.
The Oversight Dilemma
Parliamentary oversight plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency, accountability, and the effective implementation of climate policies. However, across African countries, parliamentarians often struggle with fragmented data, limited access to reliable information, and inadequate tools to track climate-related initiatives effectively. The absence of centralized, real-time data on climate finance, policy implementation, and project progress weakens oversight efforts, making it difficult to assess government commitments and measure the impact of climate interventions. Furthermore, technical capacity gaps among parliamentary staff hinder the ability to conduct in-depth policy analysis and generate timely reports for decision-making.
Beyond internal challenges, limited public engagement in parliamentary processes further reduces accountability. Many citizens remain unaware of how climate policies are being implemented or how budget allocations impact their communities, leading to low trust in governance. Without clear, structured mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation, and communication, parliamentarians risk losing credibility in their role as climate policymakers and watchdogs.
All these limitations lead to an oversight dilemma that requires creative innovation to effectively solve—and this where the CMAT tool comes in. The idea behind the Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool was simple yet groundbreaking: equip lawmakers with a centralized digital platform to help them track, analyze, and oversee climate projects and budgets in real-time.
So, what makes the Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool a digital game-changer?
Tailored for parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, CMAT integrates GIS project mapping, AI-powered budget analytics, and a centralized document repository to facilitate evidence-based decision-making. One of its key distinguishing features is the GIS-enabled project verification, allowing MPs to track, assess, and verify climate-related projects on the ground, ensuring transparency in resource utilization. Additionally, CMAT provides a structured framework for monitoring, evaluating government actions on climate policies, and assessing the effectiveness of implemented climate initiatives, enabling lawmakers to ensure transparency, enhance accountability, and drive informed legislative interventions.
The target users of the CMAT tool
- Parliamentarians
- Chairpersons and members of portfolio committee
- Chairpersons and members of parliamentary caucuses
- Parliamentary leadership: Presiding officers-Speakers/chief whips/speakers panel/majority/minority leaders/chairperson of parliaments/parliamentary commissions/boards
- Individual Members of parliaments.
- Members of parliamentary networks
- Technical staff of parliaments
- Clerks of parliament
- Clerks of relevant committees and caucuses
- Researchers/budget analysts/legal drafting teams.
- Other parliament associated institutes
Early Wins and Lessons in Nigeria’s Monitoring and Accountability Tool
The Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool is meant to serve all African countries, but each country will have a tailored version of the tool. In 2024, AGNES focused on creating the MAT tool for Kenya and Nigeria, tailoring the tool to meet the specific needs of each of the countries respectively. Currently, the Nigerian MAT tool is up and working.
The Nigeria Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool (CMAT) was developed through a collaborative, iterative process to ensure it effectively meets the needs of parliamentarians and parliamentary staff. The development journey began with a basic framework, which was refined through a series of co-creation and presentation meetings held in Nigeria. These engagements allowed for continuous feedback from stakeholders, ensuring their insights and priorities were fully integrated into the tool’s design and functionality. By maintaining an inclusive, consultative approach, MAT evolved into a user-centered platform, tailored to enhance parliamentary oversight on climate governance. More details on this process can be found in the visit reports folder.
Up next on the list is the Kenyan CMAT tool which is basically in the final phases of development and will be followed by Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire
Revolutionized climate accountability for Africa
More than a technological innovation, the CMAT tool is a critical statement to the world, that Africa is stepping up and into a new era where climate change oversight is a real-time data driven practice. It is a clear pathway to accountable parliaments as it is a bridge between policies, promises and real action. In that, there is the future of climate accountability for African countries.
