Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
17 March 2021
Post No. 187
The Week’s Contents
• Arrangements and Support during the Gradual Economic Reopening and Lockdown Easing
• Spring Relief 2021: Build Forward Better Together Greener and Cleaner
• Climate Action no. 3: PREVENT Financial De-prioritisation of Climate Change
… and much more!
Key Messages
• Arrangements and Support during the Gradual Economic Reopening and Lockdown Easing
The coronavirus effects have not exempted anybody in our community since it began last year. We hope that everybody has so far managed to overcome these effects. CENFACS is on the side of every of its members who continues to experience the pain at this time or who are in trouble because of the coronavirus and lockdown effects.
We know experiences and situations differ on how everybody in our community is coping with life under the constraints of COVID-19 and lockdowns. We may have the following situations or conditions amongst our members:
# People who are back to work because they are essential or key workers
# Those who are working from home and/or online/remotely
# Those who are still shielding because of the impacts of COVID-19 and lockdown
# Those who have been ordered to stay home and/or who lost their jobs
# Those who are looking after a family member or a friend to mitigate the COVID-19 adverse impacts
Etc.
In all these situations, we all share one thing in common which is navigating our way out of this health crisis. To navigate our way out, we need preparations or arrangements and support where we are unable to solve by ourselves the problems that COVID-19 and lockdowns have posed to our lives.
• • An Assorted Arrangement of Essential COVID-19 Services
CENFACS is open (as the above health dashboard showing) during this phase of gradual reopening of economies and societies to provide essential services, but online only. We have arranged that the essential mix of services (like advice-giving) keep running during this challenging time.
Anyone who needs advice to cope with COVID-19 induced issues at this difficult time, they are welcome to contact CENFACS. This arrangement is for individuals in the UK and Africa-based Sister Organisations in Africa needing advice at this unprecedented time. Both individuals and organisations can text, phone, e-mail and use the contact form to communicate with us.
• • Essential Support for Basic Needs
Since the coronavirus started last year, we have been remotely working and we shall continue to do so until such a time the situation returns as it was in the pre-coronavirus time. For those who need support, they can contact CENFACS via the above mentioned means of communication.
CENFACS’ COVID-19 Hub for Poverty Reduction, which brings most of our services relating to coronavirus under the same roof, is still open for those in need of support. We encourage those in need to use the services it provides and not to stay silent and or isolated if they have any problems. This is even the best moment to fight isolation and silence that COVID-19 and lockdown have pushed many people in. In this respect, poverty is also the lack of support, of useful contact and of someone to count on at this exceptional time.
To fight this type of poverty, we need to come together, to build forward better together this Spring 2021. We can do it by keeping our networking for protection alive despite the test it has undergone with the COVID-19 impacts. We may not shake hands or each other’s hands, but we can still reinvent the wheels of our networking system of protection so that we can build forward better together as we step into Spring 2021.
CENFACS’ Build Back Better and Build Forward Better Together Programmes can help to move to the right direction as we are trying to fight to come out the coronavirus or health or sanitation crisis. We can better come out it if we build forward together greener and cleaner.
For any query or enquiry about these arrangements and support, please contact CENFACS.
• Spring Relief 2021: Build Forward Better Together Greener and Cleaner
• • General Spring theme
Generally, the key theme for Spring at CENFACS is Rebuilding or Renewing Lives, Infrastructures and Institutions. In other words, Spring Relief is the season of rebuilding from what has been destroyed by wars, natural disasters, bad economic management, mistakes of the past, other disasters (like health crisis of Ebola or Covid-19), etc. We need to rebuild in order to reduce poverty, stop its re-appearance and avoid the emergence of new types of poverty and new generations of poor people.
The Winter Season of Light, which is ending in three days, gives us an opportunity to bring some lights and hopes to those in most need so that they can find the reasons to believe in life again. The Season of Light tackles poverty as a lack of hope and expectations. However, our work does not stop there.
In Spring, we take the challenge of working with those in need to rebuild their lives, infrastructures, buildings, development of relationships, communities, etc. from the damage, loss and worse change experienced or caused.
So, the key words for the Spring Season are rebuilding and renewing. We shall come back on these words at different occasions as we step into Spring and progress towards its end; especially with our advocacy project about Rebuilding Africa.
• • Build Forward Better Together Greener and Cleaner this Spring Relief 2021
This Spring 2021 is still dominated by the health or sanitary crisis brought by the coronavirus pandemic. Because of the COVID-19 dominance, we are going to help reduce poverty over this Spring within the context of life-threatening impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic as we did it last year’s Spring. This is the current context of our work. It is a context of rebuilding and sustaining lives, infrastructures and institutions in the world of health or sanitary crisis.
We started to rebuild and sustain lives, infrastructures and institutions within this contextual framework since last year when the coronavirus began. We are now trying to build forward better together. We are doing it with the green and clean economies in our mind set. However, to build forward better together we need to build back better.
So, the theme for this Spring Relief 2021 is “Build Forward Better Together Greener and Cleaner”. The announcement of Spring Relief’s theme comes with that of projects and programmes making it or the notes composing this theme. We have provided under the Main Development section of this post a selection of projects and programmes which will make this Spring – Spring Relief season.
As said above, it is a selection. Therefore, one should expect the introduction of new activities and the continuation of on-going initiatives like our All-year Round (or Triple Value) projects. That is also to say, there will be additional projects and programmes as we progress throughout this Spring season.
• Climate Action no. 3: PREVENT Financial De-prioritisation of Climate Change (from Wednesday 17/03/2021)
There are some concerns that because of the large scale and deepness of the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there could be less appetite to finance climate change programmes and projects. This is despite recently there have been some pledges from leaders around the world to keep the momentum with the work on climate change. Pledges are great; however they need to be translated into concrete actions. Before saying further anything about these actions, let us give a brief about climate finance.
• • What is climate finance?
This is what the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1) says:
“Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing – drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing – that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change”.
As part of the climate action, the goal of jointly mobilising US $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries was set up within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. With the coronavirus disruption and disturbance, many of the financial mobilisation actions for climate finance were stopped or simply postponed. It is now expected that there will be a new collective quantified goal from a floor of USD 100 billion per year as a result of COVID-19 and lockdown effects.
Clearly, the above is showing that climate finance is not a priority within the context of the fighting against the coronavirus. This is despite the fact many actors are still trying to defensively calm the mood by arguing that climate change finance is still on the agenda. Because of that, actions need to be taken to prevent the financial de-prioritisation of climate change while financially reprioritising it.
• • Actions to prevent financial de-prioritisation of climate change
The fight against the coronavirus pandemic should not be opposed to the need to prioritise the climate change issues. In fact, the world may have perhaps got into trouble with the coronavirus pandemic since the importance of preserving climate was ignored by human made behaviour. Perhaps, if humans were more kind with the nature and putting less pressure on it with their demands, the world could avoid this kind of zoonotic crisis to happen again and be a better place. The fight against adverse climate change should be given the same priority as the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. They are complimentary.
There are a number of initiatives that can be taken to keep the financial prioritisation of climate change on track while the fight against the coronavirus is being carried out. These actions could include the following:
√ Flag climate finance as a legitimate priority amongst other 2021 priorities
√ Keep the mobilisation and scaling up of long-term climate finance
√ Get donors to uphold pre-COVID-19 commitments to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
√ Re-prioritise climate finance during the post-pandemic area by making the revised or new post-2020 global climate finance target to be effective soon as possible
√ Promote the availability, accessibility, mobility and execution finance relating to climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction
√ Improve the participation of poor people in international climate forums via a better internet connection
√ Stop climate change budget cuts through financial de-prioritisation model that undermines climate change issues without evidence-based spending decisions because of COVID-19 resource requirements
√ Keep investments in net-zero emissions climate solutions
√ Set or reset climate change re-prioritisation programme
√ Keep a fair interplay between climate finance priority and COVID-19 finance precedence
√ Reignite climate finance priorities in such areas as biodiversity protection, sustainable landscapes, renewable energy and adaptation
√ Reinvigorate the private donor development for climate finance
√ Respect the commitments made for and improve the green climate fund
√ Fulfil the previous pledges made
√ Keep the financial contributions of climate institutions
√ Integrate climate finance and development funding
√ Encourage climate finance funders and donors to align with the Paris 1.5 C Climate Target and Agreement
√ Keep the climate change as a priority in the poverty reduction and development agendas
√ Include climate change approach in any post-coronavirus disaster reconstruction budget
√ Complement post-coronavirus reconstruction work and climate change work
√ Align the budget for COVID-19 reconstruction work with that of greenhouse gas emission goals and targets
Etc.
CENFACS’ Africa-based Sister Organisations will be involved in some of these climate actions; leaving others to individuals, organisations and institutions that can afford them.
For further details about this Climate Action no. 3 and to support CENFACS’ Climate Action Working Days, please contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• End-of-season Reminder!
Only 3 Days to Go for Halving Poverty for Children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger before stepping into Spring 2021
Our fundraising campaign about Halving Poverty in Africa’s Central Sahel will be closed in three days. We are again appealing to those who can to donate or pledge or make a gift aid declaration for this deserving cause.
We know this is an extremely difficult time for everybody including donors/funders. However, in places like Africa’s Central Sahel where poverty was already acute, it is even harder to survive as a child without any help at this time of the coronavirus pandemic.
Your support can make helpful difference to those children in need in Central Sahel of Africa at this challenging time of the coronavirus pandemic.
To support and or enquire about this Africa’s Central Sahel fundraising campaign/appeal, please contact CENFACS.
To find out further details about this campaign, please go to: http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/
• Climate Action Budget for Household/Family
An ordinary household or family can work out how much of their earning can be allocated to spending for climate action. The given household or family can plan for a certain period how much to spend in order to reduce for example its greenhouse gas emissions.
In their climate action spending budget, the household or family can plan the amount they need in order to encourage lower indoor greenhouse emissions, to adopt green and clean energy (for cooking and heating), to utilise efficient electric appliances, to compare fossil fuels to sustainable energy in terms of saving, etc. For effectiveness, all these small initiatives will be summarised in a climate action budget.
So, to enrich our Climate Action Days, we will be working on the items of household/family budget relating to climate and where actions can be taken at the level of household/family in order to reduce climate issues (such as indoor air pollution).
For those who would like to work with CENFACS on their household budget in order to take action in favour of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, they welcome to contact CENFACS.
• Climate Prediction and Action in Africa
This week, we are adding to our climate action climate prediction. Often, we hear climate predictions about what is going to happen. For example, in their Africa Hazards Outlook of 11 to 17 March 2021, the Climate Prediction Centre and National Centres for Environmental Protection and National Oceanic and Atmospheric in the US (2) predicted climate change in Africa. They notably argued the following for Madagascar:
“Abnormal dryness is in place over the east coastal area of Madagascar. Drought persists in the South with greatly impacted vegetation and planting delays. Expected crop losses are estimated at 40%”.
If this prediction seems to be credible and true, then climate action can be taken to mitigate or avert the negative impacts of these hazards.
CENFACS’ Africa-based Sister Organisations in those areas of Africa (like the Madagascar) subject to treacherous weather conditions can take action with locals to prevent any further damage to locals. Likewise, these hazards give some good reason to financially prioritise climate change in order to limit its adversity on most in need and vulnerable at this time of the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
For those who would to dip into climate prediction and action with CENFACS, they are welcome to contact CENFACS.
Main Development
• Spring Relief 2021: Build Forward Better Together Greener and Cleaner
• • What is in focus for Spring Relief 2021?
The focus is on Build Forward Better Together Greener and Cleaner.
Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic is and remains a sanitation crisis that has reverberated with sanitation poverty. If we are going to build back and forward together, we need to build a greener and cleaner world so that future generations will not have the fulfilment of their needs compromises. In other words, we need to adopt green and clean pathways for poverty reduction and low carbon emissions development.
So, during this Spring Relief 2021 CENFACS is going to work with the community in the UK and in Africa to start the work of building forward better together from the collateral damages left by the coronavirus disaster and some of the inappropriate lockdown measures. We have said inappropriate lockdown measures, because not all these measures have equally or symmetrically treated or affected everybody. No matter the good intention they had in order to control the coronavirus spread and protect the public health. There have been uneven distributional effects as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns for example.
Building forward better is also about correcting the asymmetrical legacies of these measures since many of our community members have been unevenly hurt during this current crisis compared to other economic crisis such as the global recession of 2008/9.
In order to build forward better, one needs a programme or a strategy or a post-COVID-19 build forward better strategy. This is why we have developed a Build Forward Better Together programme. To deliver this programme, one needs as well a set of projects and activities.
• • Preview of Projects and Programmes for Spring Relief 2021
CENFACS is pleased to present its new season’s (Spring) collection of selected projects and programmes with a choice of relief and climate smart services. For each of these projects and programmes, you will find climate resilient development ambition as well as user-friendly and –centred relief.
These are the projects and programmes to rebuild lives, infrastructures and institutions as we move forward better together greener and cleaner. They are free but we do not mind donations. The more you donate, the more we can relieve.
Please find below the selection of Spring Relief 2021 projects and programmes.
April: Protection Month
There will be two key words to add to our protection this Month: Ring-fence and Alignment. The two key terms will lead to two ways of delivering protection to the community which are as follows.
• • • Women and Children Projects (3W & PPS Reflection Day):
Reflection on Ring-fencing Protection for Women and Children to Become more Resilient to Future Shocks and Crisis (Protection project)
Our Reflection Day will be about thinking of the best possible way of improving resilience and vigilance from women and children to better sustain future shocks, disasters and crisis.
As part of the Reflection Day, we shall look at the early warning signals of future threats to and models of protection. In this respect, we shall refer to theories, measures and models of protection and prediction.
Additionally, we shall reflect on the effects of COVID-19 threats on our network of protection in the process of building forward better together greener and cleaner.
• • • Green and Sustainable Alignment of Protection to Long-term Emission Goals and Targets (Protection and Green project)
Self-protection or protecting people and communities should not be done at the expense of long-term carbon-free world. Any kind of protection to be sustainable has to be aligned with emission goals and targets if one wants a world within the framework of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
May: Stories Telling Month
Entries for Stories on Poverty Relief and Development for May 2021 (May Stories) are now open. To tell your story of change for change to CENFACS, please contact CENFACS for story telling terms and conditions.
• • • All in Development Stories: Tell your Story of Building Back Better from the COVID-19 Disaster – Tell it! (Volunteer’s & Stories Telling project)
This year’s All in Development Stories will be about how people and communities are trying or have tried to build back better from the coronavirus disaster and lockdowns.
This year’s stories are those of recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction from the shock and disaster caused by the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns. They are the tales of physical, social, environmental and economic building back better.
• • • Rebuilding Africa: Build Back and Forward Better with Communities and Africa-based Organisations (Advocacy programme)
There will two areas in our advocacy to rebuild Africa, which are as follows.
# Building Back Better with Communities and Africa-based Sister Organisations (ASOs) will be based on wellbeing economy, inclusiveness and safety against the coronavirus pandemic.
# Building Forward Together with Communities and ASOs will be about navigating their ways to improve in those areas where COVID-19 has brought a new window of opportunities and scope to learn.
June: Creation & Innovation Month
In order to come out any crisis of the magnitude of COVID-19, creation and innovation could provide answers. Likewise, to build back and forward better, creation and innovation should be the response. This June, we shall deal with creations and innovations that help cure the crisis as well as those that help prevent future shocks and disasters to be harmful or destructive for people and communities.
• • • Creations and Innovations during the Process of Building Forward Better (Creation and Innovation project)
Forming from nothing ideas or introducing changes to move forward together will be the main activity during the month of June 2021. These creative ideas and innovative ways of working will enable to find the means to meet the level of ambition we have for the kind of sustainable development and future we want.
• • • Creations and Innovations that Counteract Future Shocks and Disasters (Creation and Innovation project)
Using our skills, knowledge and talents to find techniques, technologies and new methods to deal with the currently pressing and immediate crisis may not be enough unless we create and innovate to prevent or at least to mitigate future crisis. It means there could be another need to bring into existence ideas and introduce changes and new methods to address the future crisis if they happen when they happen.
To request further information about Spring Relief 2021 projects and programmes, please contact CENFACS.
Note:
The above initiatives are only a selection of what we have planned for Spring Relief season. We may introduce new initiatives and or upgrade the existing ones depending on the circumstances as we have from time to time to respond to emergencies and urgent humanitarian issues like we have done with the current sanitary crisis, COVID-19. In which case, we shall let you know.
Also, in every work we do to try to help reduce poverty, there is always a cost to bear. If you could help alleviate some of our costs, we would more acknowledge your support than just appreciate your gesture.
________
References
(1) https://unfccc.int/topics/climate-finance/the-big-picture/introduction-to-climate-finance (accessed March 2021)
(2) https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/international/africa/africa_hazard.pdf (accessed March 2021)
Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going this year.
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2021 and beyond.
With many thanks.
