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Zimbabwe government receives US$1m grant from Russia to support low emission development strategy

October 17, 2018

By Wallace Mawire [caption id="attachment_53227" align="alignleft" width="640"]Climate Change Management Department director Mr Washington Zhakata Climate Change Management Department director Mr Washington Zhakata[/caption] The government of Zimbabwe has received a US$1 million grant from the government of Russia to implement a three year project on Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), according to Washington Zhakata, Director for the Climate Change management office. According to Zhakata, the project will deliver the Low Emission Development Strategy, the country-wide Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework and also create linkages for low emission investments with business. Zhakata also added that the country had developed a Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) manual for agricultural education students meant to better prepare graduates of the colleges of agriculture to carry out farmer trainings and outreaches to promote new climate-smart principles and practices. Zimbabwe has been party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 1994 and has been active in discussions on the Kyoto protocol, the Doha Amendment and the Paris Agreement through the African Group of Negotiators. The country’s Nationally Determined Contributions for Green House Gas (GHG) emission reduction were submitted to the UNFCCC in 2015 and the country became a party to the Paris Agreement in 2017. Zhakata said that the government of Zimbabwe through the ministry of Environment, Water and Climate has been making progress in setting the tone for the achievement of the 33% per capita reduction in green house gas emissions target in the energy sector by 2030. He said that the national climate policy of 2017 speaks to the NDC commitment while the national climate change response strategy dated before 2015 will need to be updated. It is reported that institutional arrangements for NDC implementation have been set up in a manner that involves high level coordination from the office of the president and cabinet as well as broad participation through the NDC technical committee and its sub-committees. Zhakata says that progress is being registered in making the private sector, government ministries, local authorities, research institutions and CSOs understand the low emission trajectory that the UNFCCC seeks to achieve in the next few decades and how the country can strategically position itself. “Challenges relating to domestic funding, limited access to international financial flows and private sector awareness are constraining progress towards creating an enabling environment for low emission development,” Zhakata said. It is reported that the Nationally Determined Contribution defines priority actions to build resilience to climate change and pursue low carbon development. Resilience priority areas in Zimbabwe include managing climate related disaster risks, reducing vulnerabilities in the agricultural sector through adaptive crop and livestock management, climate smart agricultural practices and improved management of water resources and irrigation. It is added that cross-sectoral adaptation efforts such as institution of policies catering to the more vulnerable, gender and social groups, sustainable agro-forestry practices and building capacity to support diversification of livelihood have also been highlighted. Zhakata says that the government of Zimbabwe identified the need to develop further analysis on the measures proposed in the NDC to prioritise interventions as well as to develop an implementation framework of NDC mitigation actions. The World Bank has been engaged for support to develop the NDC implementation framework including a measuring, reporting and verification system. The work is reported to have been ongoing and expected to be completed before the UNFCCC facilitative dialogue to be held in November/December 2018.The current work is focusing on the energy sector. According to Zhakata, the climate change management department stands ready to continue providing overall policy guidance as the country thrives to optimum preparedness in preparation for implementation of the Paris Agreement from 2020 and beyond. It is also reported that Zimbabwe has taken some significant strides in preparation for implementation of the NDCs in terms of setting up the required governance structure and mobilizing resources. “However, more still needs to be done with regards to implementation framework, finance for tangible projects, access to international climate finance for large scale transformative programmes and incentivising investors,” Zhakata said. He added that further strategic engagement with the private sector is necessary if the country’s NDCs are to be met. Zhakata added that the country will be better prepared to implement the NDCs from 2020 once a legal framework is in place for the NDCs. “More work appears to be required for sensitisation on NDCs both at individual, institutional and systemic levels,” Zhakata said.

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