The African Water Facility (AWF) is preparing to participate in the 26th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC to be held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12, 2021.
This participation is part of AWF's efforts to become more involved in climate governance, given the increasing and pressing influence that climate change has on all water, sanitation and hygiene, also known as WASH, sub-sectors. Integrating climate change into the design of WASH projects poses technical, financial and political challenges, three challenges that AWF will discuss with stakeholders at COP-26.
These discussions will be organized through side events, press briefings, and participation in panel discussions to raise awareness of the urgency and importance of mainstreaming climate change as an important quality criterion in the design of WASH projects in Africa.
To ensure effective participation, AWF is fully involved in the preparatory work of the African Development Bank delegation and has set up a preparatory committee. While the technical aspects of integrating climate change into project design will be handled by AWF specialists, issues related to financing project preparation will be handled by the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) in collaboration with the African Development Bank.
The UNFCCC COP-26 is an important moment of communication and advocacy that AWF intends to take advantage of to promote its activities at a time when it is undergoing a major change, notably with its merger with other Trust Funds dealing with the same issue.
AWF's preparatory committee has already begun preliminary consultations to determine its objectives and detailed agenda for participation in COP-26, which will be presented shortly on this web page.
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which brings together the signatory countries each year to assess the status of implementation of the Convention, including progress on their commitments and implementation of the Convention. The UNFCCC entered into force on March 21, 1994, with the ultimate goal of preventing human activities that are "dangerous" to the climate system.