As the African Climate Summit concluded last week with the Nairobi Declaration, KTN News Kenya spoke with Mwanahamisi Singano of WEDO and Eunice Musiime of Akina Mama wa Afrika about the “hits and misses” of the Summit.

Watch the interview and read the highlights below:

Q: What were your expectations going into the summit, and were they met? 

Mwanahamisi: For many Africans working in the climate space, we had huge expectations for the Summit — to finally be able to convene African leaders on African soil to discuss issues related to climate change. However, we had a lot of concerns around how the Summit was organized, and – for example – who received side events (a majority were given to multinational and international organizations). So the excitement about this being our “African Summit” faded away, and we really had to fight hard as civil society for our voices to be heard inside the Summit.

Q: How inclusive was the Summit, particularly with respect to women, girls, and the gender aspect?

Eunice: When we got the document [Nairobi Declaration], we saw that the word ‘women’ was mentioned once in the introduction. Without equating women with gender, it’s important to recognize that women are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. The people who are most affected and have to do a lot of the care work are women – and so there has to be a special recognition of women, youth, and Indigenous persons. Beyond that inclusion, it’s also important to assess how the resolutions we are making address the root causes of this crisis.

Mwanahamisi: There is sometimes an assumption that women are not organized, but because we were very organized. We had built relationships with Summit leaders, and we were able to receive a draft, review the declaration, and mobilize to make sure that issues of gender were included and centered. So when we saw the final declaration without the language around gender – it meant that someone deliberately and intentionally deleted the language. 

But we really want to own the process to say that we did our part. We managed to mobilize outside of the official process, for every woman and girl in the continent, and for every community – because women hold those communities.

Q: What did the African Climate Summit mean for marginalized communities?

Mwanahamisi: Looking at the declaration we have now, there is a recognition of the role of Indigenous Peoples, and the role of young people – the recognition of women is sort of inferred within those communities but not categorically mentioned. It’s a step in the right direction, but we could do more. What is lacking w/ respect to inclusion is to be intentional about what our African governments are committing to do to change this situation. It’s in the interest of all African Heads of State to get to the point where we don’t have marginalized groups. The way to do this is to have intentional programs to make sure that our people are not dying of the climate crisis, the same way we make a commitment to eradicate poverty or hunger. We need to be in a position to say that there will be no vulnerable groups when it comes to the impacts of climate change. 

Q: Roughly 26 million was pledged during the Summit – but how do we ensure that these countries actually pull their weight?

Eunice: You have to put your money where your mouth is. There are organizations that track the money to see how much is coming through, and one of the reasons why we had this capture of our space is because developing countries. There is a principle, polluter pays – that’s a categorical demand and we cannot continue to shoulder the loss and damage from pollution.

Mwanahamisi: We have been very categorical that what we are asking is for new and additional money. It’s not recycled money. The Global North has been so good about recycling commitments, so this money that has been pledged – we would not be surprised if half of it has already been pledged in other conferences.That poses a specific challenge in terms of accountability and tracking. If this commitment is made between countries, it results in countries contracting private sector for small projects for a profit. We have institutions like the Green Climate Fund, and we continue to ask why countries can’t deliver their commitments within this framework so we can track every cent.

Q: What’s behind the “scramble for Africa” – what is making Africa so strategic in the fight against climate change?

Mwanahamisi: We want to appreciate the work of the African Negotiators (the AGN) for being absolutely resolute regarding the role that Africa played in the climate crisis and responsibilities of the Global North. African governments have pushed Global North governments to deliver their commitments with respect to cutting emissions and providing finance. But what has happened is that the Global North has decided to shift the narrative by framing Africans coming to Global North countries as “begging.” This narrative is now in the heads of some of our African leaders to the extent that they are saying that we don’t want to be seen as beggars anymore, and we need to pull our equal weight. All we are doing when we say this, when we say we are going to open our markets, is serving the narrative of the Global North.