Adaptation at Altitude: Solutions and Climate Action in East African Mountains

This event video recording and summary explores what communities, governments and the East African Community are doing to adapt to climate change and promote transboundary cooperation.

Multiple Authors

September 22, 2021
2 min read
Event: 26/09/2021 - 17:00 (UTC +03:00) - 18:00 (UTC +03:00)

Africa Climate Week 2021: Adaptation Solutions and Climate Action in Africa’s Mountains

Exploring adaptation in East African Mountains

East Africa’s last glaciers will most likely disappear this century. In addition, rainfall patterns are changing, and erosion and drought are becoming more pressing challenges in mountain areas with severe implications for water supply and local livelihoods.

This event brought together over 40 participants from the countries in the East African region to learn what communities, governments and the East African Community are doing under the Adaptation at Altitude Programme to adapt to climate change and promote transboundary cooperation and regional dialogue. The event contributes to the Adaptation at Altitude programme’s regional component for East Africa towards increasing knowledge on climate change and appropriate adaptation solutions in mountains that feeds into science-policy platforms for informed decision-making on national, regional and global policy processes.

This event ran on Sunday 26th September at17.00-18.00h GMT+3 (Uganda) and was part of the UNFCCC Africa Climate Week, hosted by the Government of Uganda between 26th to 29th September 2021. ACW 2021 set out to accelerate collaboration and integrate climate action into global pandemic recovery. This event was hosted by Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) together with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), GRID-Arendal, the East African Community (EAC) and partners organised a virtual-side event on Wednesday, 29th September 2021.

In addition to the event recording above, you can find a summary of the event here and view the presentations below.

Speakers:

Eng. Ladislaus K. Leonidas (Principal of Environment & Natural Resources Officer, East African Community Secretariat)
Ms. Anino Maureen (Assistant Commissioner, Ministry of Water & Environment – Uganda)
Dr Sam Kanyamibwa (Executive Director, ARCOS Network)
Essey Daniel (Programme Officer, UN Environment Programme)
Ms. Sarah Kigongo Kaggwa (Programme Officer, Water for Virunga Project)
Godfrey Mwesigye (Regional Policy Officer, ARCOS Network)

Agenda:

Highlights about the Adaptation at Altitude Programme for East Africa
Presentation of Preliminary findings on adaptation solutions in East Africa Mountain areas
Panel discussion: Importance of regional policy dialogue and cooperation
Way forward and conclusion

Presentations

Click through the slides below to see the various presentations delivered during this event.

Key messages

In addition to sharing knowledge through the presentations this side event presented an opportunity for regional stakeholders to discuss the opportunities for sustainable mountain development and cooperation in East Africa. During these discussions the participants highlighted that:

The resources to support the mountain adaptation initiatives are limited given the cross-sectoral nature of Mountains development.
There is a need to mobilize resources for long term adaptation to climate change in the East African mountains to promote integrated and sustainable interventions.
There is a need to strengthen regional frameworks and platforms such as the East African Community (EAC) and promote regional cooperation linking to and supplementing national level efforts across all the EAC countries.