Report of the consultative meeting on the draft communications strategy on climate change and the comprehensive framework of African climate change programmes

The purpose of this document is to reaffirm the main elements of the African common position on climate change. As part of the gaps, challenges and recommendations relating to adaptation, mitigation and supporting and enabling measures, it points out that the components of disaster risk reduction are not all integrated in most public adaptation projects and calls to ensure that disaster risk reduction management programmes encompass and balance the three key components: early warning and preparedness, emergency response and post-disaster recovery. It encourages the development of adaptation plans at the national and regional levels that include programmes or projects, or both, on disaster risk reduction, building economic and social resilience, cross-sectoral implementation, awareness-raising and capacity-building.

The overall document presents the draft communications strategy on climate change and the comprehensive framework of African climate change programmes discussed at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) held in Nairobi, 23–26 August 2010. It aims to carry out the recommendations made in the comprehensive framework of African climate change programmes, and to call upon African Governments, international organizations and regional economic communities to expedite the implementation of existing programmes and initiatives on climate change in Africa at all levels.

The document is intended to provide the negotiators with substantive technical and policy analysis support to strengthen their preparations for the fourteenth and fifteenth sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the fourth and fifth sessions of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.