STAKEHOLDERS MEET TO SHAPE THE PATH TO THE OPERATIONALIZATION OF WEST AFRICA REGIONAL HUB OF THE INDEPENDENT GLOBAL STOCKTAKE (IGST)

The WASCAL Competence Centre, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, has hosted a one-day national workshop of the Independent Global Stocktake (iGST) West Africa Regional Hub. 

The objective of the workshop was to report the outcomes of the regional assessment on the characterization and engagement of climate civil society in West Africa, build the capacity of the participants on the Global Stocktake (GST) process, and to have discussions aimed at co-designing of the operationalization document of the Hub.

The operationalisation document of the Hub encompasses the structure, the modalities of its operation and engagement, as well as the activities’ roadmap.

At the opening ceremony, the Director of Research of the Competence Centre, Prof Kehinde Ogunjobi, speaking on behalf of the Executive Director of WASCAL, commended the representatives of the civil society organisations for their cooperation and engagement and expressed confidence that the Hub would contribute significantly to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. He said, the iGST Hub formation process ‘‘is a journey that we are undertaking together. We will work to enable each Civil Society Organisation to make the most of the collaboration with WASCAL and the West African hub. We appreciate this experience sharing and commitment towards achieving the purpose of Article 14 of the Paris Agreement’’.

The workshop was attended by participants from civil society climate organizations (CSOs) in Burkina Faso, including environmental NGOs, local government authorities, research centres, and regional climate institutions.

Presentations and discussions focused on key outcomes of the regional CSOs assessment report, a capacity-building session that included a brief introduction to the GST and the iGST, and roundtable discussions that provided opportunities for the CSOs to contribute to the co-development of the operationalization document of the Hub.

The iGST West Africa Regional Hub is funded by Climate Works Foundation and led by WASCAL in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa).