In line with changing the narrative about Africa, through strategic shifts, Catalyst 2030 held the Africa Forward event for October on Tuesday the 25th of October with a focus on climate actions and steps necessary to be taken by Africa ahead of the COP27 Conference in Egypt.

Speakers at this month’s session were Dr Richard Munang, Deputy Director United Nations Environment Programme in Africa; Dr Philip Osano, Centre Director of SEI Africa; and Karishma Ansaram Co-ordinator of the Finance and Market Working group at Youngco while the event was moderated by Olumide Idowu the co-founder of International Climate Change Development Initiative.

Africa Forward was launched on the 11th of May, during Catalyst 2030’s Catalysing Change week, with the sole purpose of rewriting the narrative about Africa. Its strategic shifts are comprised of 5 critical pillars: (1) Narrative Shift, (2) Ecosystem Development, (3) Funding, (4) Job Creation and Career Counseling and (5) Training and Capacity Development.

With emphasis placed on tackling the climate narrative in Africa, Dr Philip Osano highlighted the need to invest in technological solutions, citing that “technology is a very important part of the climate narrative”. He gave the example of Kenya’s investment in Solar energy solutions to explain this.

Describing Africa as a continent that has demonstrated global leadership in climate action, Dr Richard Munang called for an active movement to address issues of climate loss by projecting opportunities that come with addressing the losses building climate change resilience in the process. He also insisted that Africa’s approach to addressing its climate concerns at COP27 has to be tailored and localized to fit each region. ‘Africa’s response to climate change has to be executed in the African context and not as in other regions’ says Munang.

According to Karishma Ansaram, ‘We have identified that Africa has a gap in climate finance. Therefore, there is a need to educate the youth on how to unlock and access climate finance.” She also stressed that Africa is the youngest continent and we need to leverage the young population by capacity building and empowering youths with the tools needed to unlock climate financing.

The Africa Forward monthly series is intended to inspire and charge social entrepreneurs on the best ways to change the narrative about Africa. The next session holds on November 2022.

About Catalyst 2030

Catalyst 2030 is a global movement of social entrepreneurs and social innovators from all sectors who share the common goal of creating innovative, people-centric approaches to attain the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Joining forces with communities, governments, businesses and others, Catalyst 2030 members are changing systems at all levels through collective action and bold, new strategies.