The Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) has launched a program to support climate change adaptation finance mechanisms for women and youth entrepreneurship projects.
YouthADAPT: Empowering Women and Youth for Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in Climate Adaptation and Resilience will create innovative, transformative climate-resilient bankable projects that are aligned with African countries’ NDCs.
Climate action can be led by women and youth. ACCF coordinator Rita Effah and portfolio officer Lucy Debrion provided an overview of the fund’s operational guidelines for bank-implemented projects.
“African youth are leading the way, not in talk, but in concrete climate action; as agents of change, innovators, and entrepreneurs,” said AAAP coordinator and principal climate change officer Edith Ofwona Adera.
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The virtual launch followed the approval of a $1 million grant funding by the ACCF’s development partners for the project. The event rallied together stakeholders, including the project team, quality control, adaptation, gender and communication experts, and climate change and green growth experts to share experiences.
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She said the scheme would support women-led local enterprises promoting adaptation solutions to create additional jobs. Adera thanked the ACCF for collaborating on the projects and commended the fund for its role in facilitating the production of proposals. “That makes our work easier,” she added.
Following the launch, the AAAP secretariat will regularly engage with stakeholders on significant project milestones to ensure that the objective is fully accomplished.
Since 2017, the ACCF governing committees have approved 26 projects estimated at $15.87m.
