With just a few weeks to go before the 17th meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Conference of Parties (COP17) to be held in Durban, South Africa, PSAf has also scaled up efforts to ensure meaningful participation by different stakeholders.

In October, the organisation partnered with various actors at international, regional and national levels to prepare different stakeholder groups to make meaningful contributions before, during and after the conference.

At the international level, the organisation was among the facilitators at the high level COMESA-SADC-EAC Youth Summit on climate change which was held at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre from 18 to 20 July. Through the Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM) programme, the organisation made presentations on the role young people can play in generating, managing and disseminating information on climate change. This resulted in the participants coming up with recommendations on what should be done to enhance the participation of youths in the climate change response in Africa. 

In Mozambique, PSAf organised a media workshop to familiarize journalists with climate change issues, as well as national and international international protocols, policies and strategies for climate change adaption and mitigation which will be at the centre of discussions at the COP17. This led to the selection of five fellows have been selected to to cover the COP17.