The Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF 2022) kicked off on Wednesday at the New Administrative Capital (NAC).
Held under the auspices of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, it is scheduled to conclude on Friday.
In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat talked about the second edition of the forum and its expected outcomes.
What are the key themes that the second edition of Egypt-ICF tackles?
The second edition of Egypt-ICF comes just 60 days ahead of the UN COP27 Climate Conference. Egypt, as incoming president of the COP27, is determined to attain the required results in terms of supporting the African countries’ sustainable development agenda and facing challenges and capturing opportunities to the utmost efficiency. This puts great responsibilities on our shoulders to urge the kind and level of discussions at the Egypt-ICF this year that can best support Africa in this regard, allowing the African countries to upscale their capacity and explore innovative instruments facilitating access to climate finance.
Accordingly, the three-day forum will feature discussions around three main thematic areas. First, there is the mobilisation of and access to finance. The forum focuses on innovative tools to mobilise financing and catalyse private-sector investments focused on the developing countries and Africa. The second theme is financing climate action, mitigation, and adaptation. The forum addresses the needs, resources, and modalities to leverage the necessary public and private support to accelerate climate action. The third theme is about national action. The forum provides a timely platform to explore needed national actions that will help progress towards a just and green transition.
How will the Egypt-ICF leverage regional and international efforts in the lead-up to the COP27?
According to the presidency announcement, the COP this year comes under the main theme of “Moving from Pledges to Implementations”. It is within this context that Egypt aspires to bring about a turning point in international climate efforts, especially those that benefit Africa’s sustainable development agenda. There is currently no common platform that unites regional and international efforts, which is what Egypt-ICF aims to provide by crystallising key African messages on climate finance in relation to the additional grant resources needed, as well as innovative financing that can further mobilise private-sector contributions. It will also provide a potential platform for a number of African countries to present their revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and/or announce long-term strategies and link these plans and strategies to financing streams.
As a result of the Egypt-ICF workshops and roundtables, the forum will expect to see the improved coordination of African initiatives to scale up and accelerate implementation through a clearly defined and aligned implementation plan and define key opportunities for intervention at all levels to advocate at the COP27.
At the end of the forum, all regional and international partners will endorse a communiqué to voice Africa’s ambitions and demands as well as to promote national actions that mobilise and provide access to just and innovative finance and technology across countries as well as mitigation and adaptation projects.
The Egypt-ICF 2022 is organised in partnership with the African Export-Import Bank, the African Development Bank, the World Bank Group, the Climate Investment Funds, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, the International Finance Corporation, the European Investment Bank, Banque Misr, and the National Bank of Egypt.
What are the key priority sectors that Egypt plans to secure financing for?
Underpinned by Egypt’s 2050 Country Climate Strategy, a subset of adaptation and mitigation projects covering the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) has been put together reflecting the interlinkages between climate action and development efforts. The Ministry of International Cooperation has launched Egypt’s Country Platform for the NWFE programme, which provides opportunities for mobilising finance and private investments to support Egypt’s green transition.
Egypt is capitalising on its rich history of international cooperation to strengthen solidarity and cooperation between Africa and the world and to continue to promote the building of a global community with a shared future.
What have the ministry’s efforts been in the run-up to the COP27?
The ministry has been working intensively to push the sustainable development agenda and emphasise the strong linkage between development and climate actions. This started with developing Egypt’s pioneering model for mapping Official Development Assistance (ODA) onto the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), presented during the Egypt-ICF last year and showcasing transparency and good governance to the world. For example, under SDG13, to “take urgent actions to combat climate change and its impact,” you will find all the projects supported by our development partners and targeting both development and the climate, which sets an example for other countries on green development projects.
This year’s Egypt-ICF communiqué, endorsed by regional and international partners with Africa’s ambitions and demands, will be a significant input for the COP27 discussions and sessions, presenting Africa with a unified agenda to face up to climate challenges and demand crystallised actions from the international community.
As part of Egypt’s COP27 activities, the Ministry of International Cooperation has announced the launch of the global Climatech Run 2022 competition, which targets tech entrepreneurs and digital artists who share a collective passion for sustainability to present their work at the COP27.
The “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing” that will be announced at the COP27 will also be completed by then. Through a wide and inclusive consultative process that started this time last year in the first edition of the Egypt-ICF, the Ministry of International Cooperation has been leading efforts to engage and consult with more than 70 stakeholders including governments, development partners, the private sector, the commercial and investment banks, and philanthropic organisations as well as research centres and think tanks to define a framework for climate financing that is anchored in equitable and just propositions.
Throughout 2022, we have been leveraging the experience of experts and soliciting feedback from various stakeholders to ensure that the guidebook presents a balanced, ambitious, and realistic approach.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 8 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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