As policy makers prepare to gather in Durban, South Africa for this year's international climate change conference from 28 November to 9 December, PSAf has joined like-minded organisations in amplifying voices of the poor and marginalised communities on climate change.

Durban is set to host the 17th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP17), bringing together senior officials from across the world. 

To ensure that the concerns of the poor are also highlighted during the discussions, African civil society organisations came up with the African Caravan of Hope, an initiative to mobilize and consolidate African voices on climate change. the caravan is expected to highlight the key priority areas of concern and challenges as result of climate change that are often unheard at international climate change dialogue processes. 

“The Trans African Climate Caravan of Hope will present an avenue to galvanize the cross-country stakeholder voices, with an ultimate aim of telling the African story while making known the demands of Africa among its inhabitants and the rest of the world. The Caravan will provide a huge mobilisation and awareness creation opportunity for Zambian and African civil society to highlight the challenges climate change poses to Africa and Zambia in particular,” reads a synopsis of the project.

The caravan is set to run through eight countries and cover more than 7,000km from Rwanda to Durban.

In Zambia, civil society organisations are carrying out the activities under the umbrella of the  Zambia Climate Change Network (ZCCN), which is in overall charge of the civil society preparations for the COP17. The participating civil society organisations nominated PSAf to spearhead activities around awareness creation. The idea is to use various methodologies to document and amplify community voices on climate change, and include those in the messages to be presented to policy makers.

Increased awareness and debate on climate change is expected to build momentum towards the COP17 among Zambian people, and use their experience to influence policy debate. These activities are expected to result in 

The African Caravan of hope presents an opportunity for participating countries to raise awareness on climate change, share lessons and formulate specific country messages that culminates into the African Continental message to be delivered to the global delegation and negotiators at UNFCCC COP 17.

Galvanising and consolidating African people’s voices and efforts will help highlight the continent’s priorities, concerns and hope that despite scepticism occasioned by north-south divide in international climate change dialogue processes, UNFCCC-COP17 being held in the most vulnerable region offers an opportunity for a deal capable of saving humanity and the planet.

The organizing taskforce has drawn from respective national stakeholders a team expected to spearhead a proactive engagement mechanism to ensure expanded ownership to the largest extent possible.