Objectives:
2024 Budget: 150.000 €
Duration: Aug 2023- Oct2025
Districts: Lusaka, Kasempa, Livingstone, Kalumbila
Funded by:
through a subgrant from:
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Zambia has ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is categorized as highly vulnerable to climate change, ranked 139/182 with a score of 0.521 and has earmarked climate financing worth US$237 million from multilateral and private sources. Zambia is currently on an IMF programme to support economic recovery and has consistently allocated meagre resources towards environmental protection. Moreover, the government through the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (MoGEE) is in the process of revising the national policy on climate change and has submitted a Climate Change Bill for enactment. The law will supposedly provide for the governing framework for climate change action and finance. The legislative and policy changes provide entry points to enhance stakeholders’ participation and information disclosure on climate action and finance to mitigate elite and private capture of the processes. The government has demonstrated some political will to improving accountability and safeguarding the environment. For instance, the government disclosed its plans to collect (mop-up), forfeit to the state, and auction illegally harvested mukula logs following a two-year ban on harvesting and trading. The government also recently upheld its decision to cancel the environmental permit for the contentious mining in Lower Zambezi National Park. The government also recently launched the National Green Growth Strategy (2024 – 2030) which aspires for carbon, resource efficient and inclusive growth trajectory. However, there is still need for third party (communities and CSOs)’ oversight regarding the location of mining and energy projects as the energy transition has created demand for such projects, with some earmarked in environmentally vulnerable or protected areas. The government has also signed several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) pertaining to the energy transition, critical minerals extraction with the USA, Japan, UK, and the European Union; as well as MoUs on carbon markets (forest initiatives) with the UAE and China. Moreover, the President recently declared the drought ensuing from climate change as a national emergency. The declaration will result to significant resource allocation to the drought responses as well as effort to ramp up climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives. |
[1] https://gain-new.crc.nd.edu/ranking/vulnerability
[2] https://climatefundsupdate.org/data-dashboard/#1541245745457-d3cda887-f010
[3] https://mediacenter.imf.org/news/imf-zambia-s-extended-credit-facility-arrangement/s/45ff4f0d-ab95-44b4-995b-499fa4f273d1
The project is currently being implemented by 25 TI Chapters across the world. In Zambia, we seek to engage policymakers and communities to advocate for transparent and accountable climate policies. This will be done through engagement meetings with key stakeholders, and the dissemination of issues and briefs, including findings from the climate finance corruption vulnerabilities and risk assessment.
To strengthen regional coordination and cross-learning opportunities, representatives from TI-Z will participate in a number of events and platforms for joint advocacy and action, including the UNFCCC COP 28, the Africa Climate week, and other events in coordination with TI Chapters and EITI.
Community engagement will be the focus of various capacity building and awareness activities rolled out in the three districts of intervention, leveraging on TI-Z’s decentralized presence ensured by the district-based Transparency Action Groups (TAGs) – aimed at sensitizing the public on climate change and corruption vulnerabilities, reinforcing existing local platforms for engagement and ensuring the engagement of local authorities and community leaders.
Staff will be trained on Gender, Environment and Social Inclusion to ensure that all interventions are gender-sensitive, and ad hoc gender responsive social accountability tools will be used for monitoring climate projects/initiatives.
An important component of the project, reflected in the project’s outcome 03, is guaranteeing the protection and rights of victims of environmental crimes and corruption. The project will address these by launching and popularising a platform to report environmental crimes and corruption, which will reinforce TI-Z’s ALAC function (Advocacy and Legal Action for Citizens). Moreover, investigative journalists will be trained to report on climate and environmental corruption, and supported in the compilation of community-based stories exposing wrong-doing. Similarly, environmental defenders and climate change activists will be supported on corruption reporting, investigations and security.
Key activities/targets for 2024