Consolidation of Evidence

The Consolidation of Evidence Work Program is a multidimensional approach to support climate negotiations, policy, and decision-making through the integration of scientific, social, economic, and cultural research and experiences to guide policy development and implementation of climate action. This process is being supported to ensure that Africa’s unique priorities are grounded in robust and comprehensive knowledge for decision making. Policymakers need a range of evidence to make informed and just decisions that balance environmental, economic, and social considerations which underpins the design of resilient climate policies that can achieve long-term sustainability. The African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) is strengthening this process by providing evidence-driven insights that are helpful to advocate for policies that drive resilience, equity, and sustainable development.

Thematic Areas

The work program is structured into four themes:

1. Consolidation of Evidence –  The focus of this track is to generate scientific evidence by conducting empirical investigations which include systematic reviews, synthesis and data analyses in the continent to inform common African positions with the best available science and policy decisions at the climate negotiations.
2. Support to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) – The objective is to organize strategy meetings such as Pre-Conference of Parties (COPs) and Pre-Subsidiary Bodies (SB) sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)  to develop Africa’s position on different agenda items in the negotiation streams and prepare African negotiators with required technical support ahead of these global   events.
3. Support to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) through which African scientists are represented in various IPCC pre-meetings. For example, African experts are being supported with technical sessions to get prepared on the:
4. Review of the 1994 Technical Guidelines of  Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations; and Development of  the outline for the 7^th Assessment of Cycle (IPCC-AR7 report
5. Identifying priority research areas for Africa.
6. Mobilizing African researchers to enhance their contributions to IPCC special reports.
7. Development of Knowledge Products that guide policymakers, development practitioners, and climate investors through knowledge resources such as policy briefs , technical guidelines, blog posts, podcasts, and decision support tools  to guide African countries in managing their own course of action.

Achievements

1. Strengthening Support to the African Group of Negotiators
2. Convened the Pre-SB60 Strategy Meeting (April 9-12, 2024, Nairobi) of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) –  with 171 negotiators and experts to develop Africa’s positions on Agriculture, Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), Climate Finance, Gender, Health, Ecosystems and Biodiversity, and Water in preparation for COP 29.
3. Convened Kenya’s Gender Negotiators Meeting (April 3, 2024) – during which  25 gender experts were trained to prepare Kenya’s submission on the implementation of the Lima Work Program on Gender and its Gender Action Plan (GAP).
4. Gender and Climate Change Negotiators Support facilitate the participation of more African women in the UN Women regional meeting on gender-inclusive climate action.
5. Supported 10 Lead Negotiators from Rwanda, Nigeria, DRC, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, and Botswana to engage in technical  negotiation meeting during the SB60 in June 2024
6. Media engagement support to journalists raising public awareness on why climate talks matter in developing countries such as Kenya. For example, one Kenya Journalist was supported to provide report on SB60 in Bonn, in English and Kiswahili.
7. Expert meeting on Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) (July 28-30, 2024) brought 65 African adaptation and finance experts together to assess evidence for adaptation indicators and prepare for New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) negotiations at COP29.
8. Enhancing African Experts’ Participation in the IPCC Process
   1. Coordinated webinars across the sub-regions of Africa to establish regular networking and information-sharing among African researchers to introduce them to the IPCC processes, thereby increasing their participation especially in the AR 7 cycle.
   1. Organized  Strategy Meetings to sensitize African climate researchers on the IPCC processes and opportunities for engagement.
   1. Capacity Building Workshops organized in preparing African authors for their roles in the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.
   1. Organized Pre-Scoping Meeting for AR7 in 30^th November – 2^nd December, 2024 with the objective to develop a working outline that will reflect African needs and priorities in the IPCC 7th Assessment Cycle, ahead of the IPCC Scoping Meeting to develop global outline in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 9-13 December. 2024
   1. AGNES is leading efforts to ensure Africa-specific adaptation needs are integrated into IPCC methodologies, especially with regards to the review of the IPCC Technical Guidelines on Impact & Adaptation in Africa

Priority Areas of Intervention 

• Establishment of a sub-regional community of practice of climate scientists, negotiators, and policymakers to bridge the gap in multi-stakeholder collaborations by providing a coordinated scientific assessment for negotiations, and policymaking, for example the generation of sub-regional evidence though systematic review, synthesis analysis, and development of grey literature into peer-reviewed journal for negotiators and policy briefs for policymakers.
• Emerging evidence required for negotiations include regional climate risk assessment, measuring adaptation progress based on the Global Goal on Adaptation Framework (GGA) for the second stocktake (GST), the marine, oceans and blue economy, and the artificial intelligence in climate action.