United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Title

CIS training at national level: Sierra Leone Legislative Assembly

Thursday, December 12, 2019 to Friday, December 13, 2019

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Introduction

During phase I of the WISER programme, ACPC organized a Training of Trainers workshop in Addis Ababa on Mainstreaming Climate Information and Services into legislation, development policies and plans. The event was attended by members of parliament and Civil society representatives from across Africa.

The overall purpose of the ToT workshop was to build the capacities of decision makers in the use of Climate Information and Services for planning and decision-making. Specifically, the event aimed to: i) Implement the training module on “Mainstreaming/Integrating Climate Information and Services into Legislation, Development Policies , Plans and Practice: Training Resources for Capacity Building for Legislators, Policy Makers and Civil society”; ii) Build awareness of legislators and civil society organizations (CSO) of climate data, types of climate information (CI), types of climate information services (CIS); iii) Explain the infrastructure and services provider of CI and CIS; iv) Improve the understanding of legislators and CSO of the importance of climate information and climate information service in decision-making in key development sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, transport. Disaster risk reduction, urban and spatial development; v) Demonstrate the value and centrality of CI and CIS to the planning process; vi) Present a brief synopsis of the state of climate information services in Africa, and what can be done to improve the situation; and vii) Build the capacities of legislators and CSOs on how to integrate CI/CIS into laws, policies and plans.

Climate disasters continue to ravage the African continent with ever increasing intensity as witnessed in the Southern Africa droughts and cyclones Idai and Kenneth. This has heightened the urgency for increased use of climate information in decision making before, during and after climate disasters to safeguard livelihoods, reduce economic losses and save lives.

Objectives

The main objective of the training of policy makers and influence groups at national level is to build the capacity of legislators and CSOs to apply climate information tools and materials in producing laws and plans that take into consideration climate information. Specifically, the
event will undertake the following tasks:

Overview of challenges caused by climate disasters in Africa;
Tools, resources, networking opportunities to support climate informed legislation;
Climate information and services: A fast track course on application of climate information and services in decision making;
Identify bottlenecks in developing climate informed laws and regulations at national and sub-national levels.

Expected Results

Better understanding of the social economic benefits and value for money in investing in CIS.
Increased capacity of legislators to enact legislation that facilitates the generation, packaging, uptake and use of CIS.
Awareness and readiness to utilize available resources and tools in developing climate informed plans and policies.

Structure

The structure of the training workshop will consist of an overview of CIS in the continent and the role of the WISER programme in improving the policy and enabling environment and addressing the paucity of climate research for development planning. The following WISER outcomes will be presented in part one of the training:

The Social Economic Benefits (SEB) and Value for Money (VfM) of CIS models developed by ACPC for DRR and the nexus of water, energy and agriculture.
Modalities for coordination and partnerships in the co-production, uptake and use of CIS in Africa.
Ongoing climate research currently being done by 21 grantees across the continent.

The learning tools and module developed under WISER will then be introduced in part two and presented to participants. The training focal persons in Sierra Leone (who participated in the ToT in 2016) will step the participants through the content available in the module under the following topics:

SDG Frame work on Climate Action;
Stakeholders and Users of Climate Information;
Climate change budgeting;
Monitoring and evaluation;
Challenges in the Integration of CSI in Africa.

Part one and two will include interactive engagement of participants to elicit their experiences and to enable sharing of lessons they have learnt in legislating climate change issues.

The third part of the training will be breakout sessions to consider the content presented, relate the material to known challenges and propose the utility of skills and tools introduced in the workshop, in identifying and developing solutions.

Participants

The ToT focal persons based in Sierra Leone will mobilize members of the Sierra Leone parliament, including the speaker, leader of government business and leader of the opposition to participate in the training event.