Wanjira Mathai

The 2nd African Forum on Urban Forests (AFUF) is set for 18-21 March 2025 in Johannesburg. #AFUF needs your contribution on any aspect of urban forestry, including street trees, parks and urban forests like #Karura in #Nairobi. Our interest is cities, towns, and villages, and we are looking for examples of urban tree growing and conservation that can be replicated or learned from and might inspire others. Are you a #town #planner? Do you run a city tree #nursery? Do you work at an NGO #regreening a neighborhood for shade? Are you an #architect integrating indigenous trees into the landscaping of malls? Are you teaching #urban forestry in an African university? We want to hear from you. We favor non-jargony accessible writing. If you have research to share, kindly focus more on results and what they mean rather than methodology and tools. We are interested in practice and policy and what is happening across Africa. Submit a summary here https://lnkd.in/dtD-43-y if you want to give a presentation or poster. The deadline can bend. If you have a case study that you would like to see published in a book, write to me at [email protected] and [email protected] and we will send you a template. The Forum looks forward to hearing from you! We particularly need submissions from #SADC countries like #Zambia, #Botswana, #Zimbabwe, #Lesotho. As yet we have nothing from #Cote d’Ivoire, #Sierra Leone and #Senegal. We are looking at you and know you are out there. Cheikh Mbow Simone Borelli Padde Daniel Kounkuey Design Initiative Ayanda Roji Jessica Thorn Cecil Konijnendijk Tunde Morakinyo Evans Lyndon Baines-Johnson Stephen M. Mureithi Kate Chesebrough Alice Gerow pls spread the word.

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Call for Proposals to Cover COP29 from an African Lens Across Africa, many innovative solutions, policies, and individual initiatives are taking shape. These include the development of climate-resilient seed varieties, adopting climate-smart agricultural practices, and implementing renewable energy initiatives such as wind and solar technologies. Progress is being made in formulating comprehensive energy efficiency strategies, advancing weather monitoring services and advisory services, and deploying effective water management technologies. Furthermore, there are ongoing endeavors to establish environmental and social governance standards, implement domestic financing strategies, manage disaster risks, engage in community-led ecosystem restoration projects, and undertake major initiatives aimed at reforestation, land restoration, and biodiversity conservation. Do you have any reporting ideas on how to cover these solutions to address climate change? Apply now: https://lnkd.in/eE5YPfTf

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Join us tomorrow on Kazoza FM. We will talk about how protecting forests and ecosystem can contribute to tackle climate change

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Strategic Partnerships for Societal Transformation: Connecting NGOs and Corporate South Africa Khulisa Social Solutions is dedicated to empowering NGOs, recognizing their pivotal role in societal transformation. By equipping local NGOs with the tools and capacity to address pressing social challenges, we ensure they become sustainable platforms for long-term community resilience. This focus drives all our initiatives, fostering stronger, more impactful NGOs. In South Africa's landscape of political complexities and social challenges, NGOs stand out as beacons of change. To be truly transformative, they require proper constitution and capacitation. This entails aligning missions with community needs and ensuring resources and expertise for effective execution. Corporations play a critical role, with involvement beyond checkbox CSR. Support must be strategic, targeted, and aligned with genuine community needs. By adopting a needs-driven approach, businesses provide measurable and impactful support, moving beyond financial assistance to sharing expertise, technology, and networks to amplify NGO service delivery. Well-supported NGOs can be significant sources of employment, stimulating local economies and fostering societal stability, contributing to long-term economic growth. To enhance impact, NGOs must adopt data-driven interventions, demonstrating effectiveness to secure further support and refine strategies for sustainable change. Robust partnerships with civil society and corporations can liberate NGOs from unpredictable government funding, enabling flexible collaborations that scale solutions and yield wide-scale change. Such synergies enhance community well-being and foster a healthier society overall, benefiting the social and economic environments that businesses depend on. Supporting NGOs is not just philanthropy; it's a strategic investment in our economy and future. To capitalize on this potential, transparency, accountability, and continuous dialogue are crucial. Businesses must engage in partnerships that address immediate concerns and pave the way for long-term societal benefits, building a legacy of positive impact for generations to come. We urge corporate leaders to align strategic goals with community development initiatives, mobilizing investment opportunities for real change. By partnering with organizations like Khulisa Social Solutions, your investments achieve maximum social impact, fostering a healthier, more stable society. Now is the time to transform your CSI strategy into an impactful investment in our collective future. Engage with us today to explore how your organization can make a significant difference in South African communities. #khulisasocialsolutions #khulisa

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On 9 May, #Europeday, Uganda 🇺🇬 is highlighting the support it is receiving from European 🇪🇺 union and its member states : Belgium 🇧🇪, Denmark 🇩🇰 and Sweden 🇸🇪 to address the devastating effects of climate change in some of the most at risk districts. Twice already over the last ten days our colleagues in the field have reported death and casualties from the neighboring communities: children 👦🏾, women and men and elderly due to extreme weather 🌦️ events and landslides. Climate change #adaptation requires long term #locally led and #systemic solutions. This is what the LoCAL facility aims to provide in Uganda and across #LDCs, #SIDs and other developing countries in #Africa and beyond, thanks to the unique expertise and instruments of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and our partners.

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Watch the full UN Biodiversity #BiodiversityBeat interview with our co-chair Andrew Gonzalez and learn more about: - the #KMGBF Monitoring Framework - binary indicators - the role of GEO BON within the science community and - why we need for a Global Biodiversity Observing System #GBiOS

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Agroecology Fund grantee partner PELUM Kenya Association country coordinator Rosinah Mbenya and close ally Global Alliance for the Future of Food deputy director Lauren Baker make a case for vital need to fund food systems for climate action. "Community leaders from the Global South who are present at #COP29 are making a strong case for direct funding to smallholder farmers and fishers, who are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis while contributing the least to it. #Grassroots movements are showing how agriculture can contribute to #climate change mitigation as well as adaptation, elevating important links between local solutions and global negotiations. How we feed the world and climate-proof food systems through increasingly extreme weather events are among the biggest challenges of our times. This is why we urgently need more climate finance to build resilient, equitable, and sustainable food systems." https://lnkd.in/gY2Ku_AS

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Impacted front line communities that are enough neglected in gaining access to funding, and support ,they still remain the true champions in the fight against climate crisis, they keep surviving. They are one that needs access to funding, capacity strengthening and technology support to restore hopes that have been lost due to the climate change. let's support #AfricaGreenEmploymentDecade to raise youth champions to tackle energy poverty. #GreenSkills #DecentJobs #LocalCommunity #localactions #localsolutions #COP29 #Fronlines #ClimateChange #wethepeople #lossanddamage #funding crisis.https://

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We commissioned a Climate landscape study in Uganda to deepen the understanding of climate change impacts on children and their families within the country. The findings established that 43% of children and 47% of caregivers witnessed illness caused by climate change events. The results indicate that only 29% of children and 37% of caregivers have access to early warning information. Children who experienced climate change impacts are 2.3 times more likely to observe adverse effects on their education than those who did not face climate shocks. Deforestation is widely acknowledged as a leading cause of climate change, with urban adolescents more likely to attribute climate change to industrial activities and energy production than their rural counterparts. The involvement of children in climate-related decision-making is notably limited, with their voices often overlooked despite their vulnerability to climate impacts. The Government of Uganda has demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing climate issues through various policy, legal, and regulatory frameworks including the National Climate Change Policy, the National Climate Change Act, and various sector-specific strategies. However, implementation gaps and the need for more robust mechanisms for mobilizing climate financing remain a challenge. There is need to strengthen meaningful coordination of climate change interventions at the national and sub-national levels, linking them to the centralized climate action coordination body proposed in the National Climate Change Act of 2021; Increase public spending on social protection to build resilience and reduce vulnerability; Incorporate climate resilience into business plans and adopt climate-smart practices that are environmentally friendly across all operations, including energy efficiency, waste reduction, and sustainable sourcing. #ClimateActionNowforEveryChildsFuture

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This Climate and Clean Air Coalition assessment, supported by SEI York and SEI Africa authors, examined the relationships between sustainable development and short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), greenhouse gases and other polluting emissions. The African Assessment clearly demonstrated that action that is both integrated across climate and clean air objectives and coordinated across the five key sectors can potentially deliver: 1️⃣ Substantial reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), SLCPs, including black carbon, ozone precursors and hydrofluorocarbons, and other air pollutants (40-80% by 2063); 2️⃣ Prevention of 200,000 premature deaths per year by 2030 and 880,000 premature deaths per year by 2063 due to outdoor and indoor air pollution; 3️⃣ Improving food security by reducing desertification and increasing crop yields for rice, maize, soy and wheat; 4️⃣ Limiting the negative effects of regional climate change on rainfall, especially in the Sahel region, and temperature in parts of Africa. 👉 Full report: https://buff.ly/4d5fdsG

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Join the masterclass on climate change and land governance

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We are all seeking refuge and we must all help each other find it. Help by seeding gardens of those facing floods in Nairobi and Turkana - and grow your own gardens through #CommitmentPooling https://lnkd.in/dQqFs8Yw Grassroots Economics

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Lake Malawi, our national treasure, holds immense untapped potential. Sometimes I wonder if we are truly thinking strategically enough to make investments that could unlock its full potential. By adopting an ecosystem-based approach to conceptualize investments, we could significantly develop the fisheries sector and harness the lake’s other economic benefits, such as a robust tourism industry. These should be among the government's key priorities, they should be pragmatic about it. Creating a conducive environment to attract private sector investment is critical.May be we should focus on that. The fisheries sector in Lake Malawi alone holds substantial value—one that should prompt the government to make serious, targeted investments.

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