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CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND

AFRICAN AGRICULTURE GRANTEE CONVENING

24-25 February 2011

Project Name: Facilitating RUFORUM Universities to Access

Climate Change Adaptation Funds and Training

Opportunities

Grantee : Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building

in Agriculture

Presenter : Prof Adipala Ekwamu

1

Brief Background of the Institution

• Regional Universities FORUM for Capacity Building

in Agriculture

• Consortium of 25 Universities in ECSA (15 countries)

• Mandate of Supporting Postgraduate Training in

Agriculture and Related Sciences

– Competitive grants for research and MSc, PhD

Training

– Specialized Innovative Capacity Strengthening for

member Universities

– Advocacy for Agricultural Tertiary Education

– Facilitating University Engagement with development

Processes

• Using Regional Approach

2

Your other projects/programs on climate change

adaptation

• Climate change is the defining human development issue of our

generation

• African Universities have been slow to respond to climate change

adaptation challenges despite the many emerging opportunities for

capacity building and funding for climate change related initiatives.

• Weaknesses in universities Strategy for CCA:

– resource mobilization

– networking

– Curricula and curricula delivery

– research agenda setting

– staff capacity for climate change science

– engagement with other development actors

• Weaknesses are exacerbated by inherent limited capacities for

climate change donor intelligences and lack of dynamic knowledge

base of current and emerging funding agencies.

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RUFORUM DESIRE

• Facilitate Member Universities to:

– Design multi-year coordinated CCA research

programmes;

– Develop science-policy interfaces;

– Ensure that the products of climate change research

are scientifically credible, salient and legitimate;

– Build lasting human and institutional capacity CCA;

– Train graduate relevant to CCA needs of society;

– Contribute to the global climate change knowledge

– Empower communities to adapt to CC.

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Objectives

• Existing levels of CCA capacity and activities in Universities

• Access to current and upcoming CCA funding and training opportunities

Outputs

• Awareness, Knowledge and Capacity

• Database of University CCA Initiatives

• Database of CCA training and funding opportunities

Coordi-nation

• RUFORUM Secretariat

• 25 Member Universities

Project Objectives and Outputs

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

Objective 1: Establish the existing levels of CCA capacity

and activities in member Universities

– Activity 1.1: Desk study for university gaps

– Activity 1.2: Publish and share the output of the university level

gap analysis.

Objective 2: Facilitate RUFORUM member universities to

access current and upcoming CCA funding and training

opportunities

– Activity 2.1: Construct and continuously update a database of

current and emerging opportunities

– Activity 2.2: Use RUFORUM existing network and link with

development partners to facilitate access to the opportunities

– Activity 2.3: Technical support and guidance to University CCA

resource mobilization and leveraging training opportunities

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Highlight on the Progress to date

•University Gap Analysis Done, Updating of database On-going 1

• Hiring of technical Expert to Support University Resource Mobilization and Link to CCA Opportunities – In process: End of February 2011

2

• Donor and Training Opportunities landscape – ongoing

• Already Access for some universities realized

3

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Early Results

• Access to on-going RUFORUM Competitive Grants for

CCA related research at Universities

• Limited Access to African Climate Adaptation Opportunities

• 12 Proposals sent from Member Universities to the START

programme for CCA research;

• African Climate Change Adaptation Fellowship Programmes –

Active in three universities (Makerere, UNZA, Egerton), Preparation

for Second face of fellowships underway;

• Joint proposals targeting EU; IDRC; AU Research Call

• New Grant from APPEAR – WATERCAP for two universities

(Egerton and Makerere with partner in Austria – BOKU on CCA for

Water Resources – coordinated at RUFORUM Secretariat – EURO

– 400,000 starting April 1st 2011

• UNEP/Sida Funded Nile Basin Project to fund 7 University

researchers (USD, 10,000.00) each to document CCA initiatives on

water systems

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Key Challenges

• Delayed Activities due to many externalities

• Inequitable access to opportunities by all member

Universities – few opportunities currently target Southern

African Countries/Universities

• Climate Science Capacity – limited collaboration and

capacity to design competitive proposals from

universities

• Politicization of Climate Change Science

• Overcrowded field where the “fittest” – civil society –

survive by accessing funding and training

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Lessons Learnt

• Universities are doing a lot on climate change

adaptation but in a less coordinated manner

• Leading to duplication and less cost-effective

investment in climate change research

• Existing curricular and research agenda out of

tune with collaborative climate change research

• The regional approach and networking delivers

quickly on resource and training opportunity

access

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Emerging Opportunities for Collaboration

• Short term (workshops, training of trainers, certificate

course and long term (MSc and PhD) training

opportunities:

1. START - SysTem for Analysis Research and Training

2. Open Society Initiative (OSI)

3. African University Adaptation Training Grant

4. African Capacity Building Programme

5. Advancing Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation

(ACCCA) and other projects

6. UN Initiatives on CCA capacity building

• RUFORUM Network for Joint Actions, Knowledge

Management and Lesson Learning Platforms

• Advocacy among University Management (VCs are

Board members)

• CCA Resource Mobilization strategy

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Next steps

• Exploring opportunities under:

• The UNFCCC adaptation funding facilities including Adaptation

Fund (AF), Adaptation to Climate Change Initiative, African

Development Fund (ADF), etc

• The Inter American Development Bank-Netherlands Water

Partnership Program (INWAP)

• Opportunities from development partners and other donor

organizations including Global Environment Facility (GEF),

IDRC, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, USAID, etc

• Climate Change Adaptation networks for small grants and

capacity building e.g. African Climate Change Knowledge

Network of COMESA, African Climate Change Fellowship

Program of START.

• Opportunities for partnerships and funding from civil society and

private sector CC investment

Thank you