The SACFP Learning Journey

24 - 26 February 2020, Tshwane and Magaliesberg

By SouthSouthNorth

Introduction

Stakeholders from across the Southern African Climate Finance Partnership (SACFP) convened in Tshwane and Magaliesberg, South Africa, from the 24th to the 26th of February 2020, to participate in a three-day long Learning Journey event. The event provided an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on the impact of the past four years of the programme as it comes to a close later in the year. Participants from public and private sector institutions in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe shared their experiences and lessons learned as they pursue the journey of accessing and utilising Green Climate Fund (GCF) resources to address national climate change priorities. Through this reflection, stakeholders were able to participate in co-creating the future focus of the programme as it moves into a new phase in April 2020 (Phase III 2020-2023).

Overcoming roadblocks to private sector engagement

The journey started in Tshwane, where participants reflected on the roadblocks to increasing private sector participation in financing and implementing climate adaptation projects. It continued to the Hartbeespoort Dam where participants visited the new start-up company, the Hya Matla Organics project. This project was able to initiate their operations through a combination of philanthropic funding and government cooperation which enabled the role-out of an innovative solution to a serious environmental problem. In doing so, it demonstrated a strong business case that opens the door to further growth and investment. The company transforms hyacinth, a water weed which causes major environmental problems for the Hartbeespoort Dam, into organic fertiliser. Unfortunately, at this point the learning journey hit a bump in the road (literally!). As fate would have it, we would never reach the Hya Matla Organics work site. However, the team met us en route and gave us an extremely interesting and inspiring explanation of the business and what they have achieved in transforming an invasive species into a product for the agricultural sector; while achieving several win-wins for the environment and people along the way. As Gibson Mundende from FBC Holdings Limited in Zimbabwe stated: “there are opportunities from what we see as challenges…we think we have thorns, they are opportunities in another way”.

Bumps in the road...

The bus getting stuck taught us an important lesson - every journey has challenges and, working together (and using some high-tech digging equipment from Hya Matla), we were able to free the bus from the ground. The participants got back onboard and the learning journey continued.

Harties Aerial Cableway

The journey took the participants to new heights as they were transported to the Harties Aerial Cableway which overlooked Hartbeespoort dam. This was a great viewpoint to realise the extent of Hya Matla’s work. Until recently almost 50% of the dam was covered in the green waterweed, and instead, it is now clear and supporting a healthy ecosystem. The views from the lookout were incredible (although the ride up in the cable car might have been a bit traumatising for some!).

Catalysing a regional climate finance knowledge network

The final day of the event began with an interactive drumming session and visualisation exercise, which encouraged open communication and connectivity amongst the group. Through individual instances of story telling and group sharing, participants were able to articulate how the SACFP programme has assisted them along their journey towards GCF access and how it could continue to do so in the future. Through the South-South knowledge brokering approach, the programme encouraged experiential learning to overcome common obstacles and “build a foundation upon which we are able to be effective as a region, working together”, as stated by one of the stakeholders, Olympus Manthata, Head of Climate Finance at the Development Bank of Southern Africa).

End of the event, but the learning journey continues

Overall, the event was a great success and provided a robust platform from which to launch phase three of the SACFP. The journey was beautifully depicted by Graphic Harvester, Grant Johnson (see below).

For more insight and to view the videos from the event, which include interviews with the participants, please see the Impact Stories beneath the graphics.

Learning Journey - Impact Stories

Key project stakeholders participated in interviews as part of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) process. These interviews enabled the development of two Impact Story videos which explore the participants’ perspectives on the programme outcomes to date.

In the first video, ‘Catalysing a regional climate finance knowledge network in Southern Africa: Stakeholder experiences’, participants reflect on the advantages that come from the South-South knowledge brokering approach adopted by the project.

The second video ‘Enhancing capacity to access climate finance in Southern Africa: Experiences of SACFP stakeholders’ showcases examples of how the project has achieved several key outcomes, including:

An increased sense of agency amongst key institutions and individuals;
Greater connectivity and improved cooperation between stakeholders at both national and regional levels; and
A new appreciation of the need for strategic approaches to accessing the GCF.