In October 2025, the AGNES, undertook a strategic mission to Zambia to strengthen institutional partnerships and promote climate governance through digital innovation, a project that has been ongoing since early this year. A central focus of this mission was deepening collaboration with the National Assembly of Zambia, an African parliament that has demonstrated growing leadership in integrating climate change into its legislative, oversight, and representative functions.
Zambia, like many other African nations, continues to face severe climate impacts. Following the devastating 2024 drought, the country has placed climate resilience and green growth at the Centre of its national development agenda. In this context, strengthening parliamentary oversight and accountability mechanisms has become critical to ensuring that climate finance is effective, transparent, and aligned with national priorities.
A proactive parliament in climate governance
Over the past year, the National Assembly of Zambia has taken bold steps to institutionalize climate action. The enactment of the Green Economy and Climate Change Act (2024) marked a pivotal moment in mainstreaming climate change within the country’s legal and governance frameworks. In further support of these efforts, the Assembly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AGNES in March 2025, committing to technical collaboration on climate tracking, evidence-based policy engagement, and capacity development for Members of Parliament (MPs) and staff. The October mission offered a timely opportunity to reflect on this partnership’s milestones and chart a shared path forward.
The Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool (CMAT)
A key highlight of the visit was a high-level technical session hosted by the National Assembly, where AGNES presented the progress made on the Zambian Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool (CMAT). This innovative platform is designed to support parliaments in tracking national climate actions, visualizing projects and budget data, and enhancing legislative oversight. The session brought together directors, deputy directors, committee staff, and members of the CMAT technical steering group. It was chaired by the Deputy Clerk (Procedure), with participation from the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment and the National Assembly’s Parliamentary Departments. During the presentation, AGNES walked participants through the tool’s key features, particularly its ability to map projects spatially, filter climate finance allocations by sector, and align them with national planning frameworks such as the NDCs and SDGs.
Participants at the session welcomed CMAT as a practical and timely solution to existing data and oversight gaps. They emphasized the tool’s potential to improve legislative follow-up on climate commitments, support evidence-based policymaking, and enhance the visibility of climate projects at both national and sub-national levels.
A regional model for legislative leadership
Zambia’s National Assembly stands out as one of the few African parliaments actively working to institutionalize climate accountability through digital tools. The CMAT engagement represents a strong step toward operationalizing the Assembly’s commitments under the Green Economy and Climate Change Act and sends a clear signal of Zambia’s intent to lead by example. Importantly, this collaboration also contributes to a growing continental movement to elevate the role of parliaments in climate discourse, moving beyond reactive legislative roles toward proactive, informed, and data-driven engagement with climate policies, budgets, legal and institutional frameworks.
Conclusion
The AGNES mission to Zambia reaffirmed the vital role of national parliaments in delivering effective, transparent, and accountable climate action. Through tools like CMAT, institutions such as the National Assembly of Zambia are setting the pace in integrating climate change into governance systems in meaningful and practical ways. As climate finance continues to grow in scale and complexity, the ability of parliaments to track, scrutinize, and shape these investments will determine not only their effectiveness but also their fairness and long-term impact. AGNES remains committed to supporting such efforts, ensuring that African legislatures are not just part of the conversation, but are leading it.