Despite the many efforts to support the implementation of national climate measures, ECOWAS countries are still experiencing difficulties at various levels in accessing climate finance. To address this, ECOWAS brings stakeholders together in Dakar (Senegal) from 29 to 31 July 2025 for a capacity-building workshop.

The workshop aims to build the technical capacity of government experts, stakeholders and regional organizations to access climate financing, use climate information and services, and integrate climate issues into national and regional agricultural priorities.

Speaking on behalf of the Senegalese Minister for Environment and Ecological Transition, technical adviser Colonel Thialaw Sarr recommends that “countries in the region work in synergy to identify ways and means of meeting the challenges posed by climate change”.

“The inadequacy of domestic finance to meet the challenges posed by climate change must lead to the mobilization and strengthening of the absorption capacity of available international funds dedicated to climate action”, the Acting Executive Director of the ECOWAS Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food, Mr. Mohamed Zongo calls for action. The African Development Bank (AfDB) also warns that the impact of climate change on the continent could reach 50 billion dollars a year by 2040, with a further 30% drop in GDP by 2050. The economic losses caused by climate impacts will mainly come from agriculture and infrastructure.

Indeed, according to the mapping of climate finance flows to ECOWAS Member States, validated in September 2022 and covering the period from March 2019 to June 2022, $3,325 million has been received by Member States out of the $239,852.18 million expressed in their revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for conditional and unconditional actions by 2030. If this trend continues, by 2030 only 13% of the annual financial needs for the implementation of the declared conditional NDCs will be covered.

To recall, West Africa is facing increasingly frequent, intense and severe climate risks, the growing impact of which is compromising socio-economic development efforts. Climate change is illustrated by high frequency of extreme events such as floods and droughts, with a range of negative impacts: lower agricultural yields, limited access to drinking water, soil erosion, famines, epidemics, large-scale migrations and social conflicts.

In response to these challenges and adding to the Regional Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), ECOWAS adopted in June 2022 the Regional Climate Strategy and its 2022-2030 Action Plan to help Member States meet the challenge of combating climate change, particularly through support for meeting their commitments under the Paris Agreement. Besides, the ECOWAS Climate Finance Mobilization and Access Strategy was adopted to improve access to and mobilization of climate finance and the implementation of priority mitigation and adaptation actions.

Through this capacity building workshop, ECOWAS aims to facilitate the emergence of projects that meet the requirements of the Green Climate Fund for the mobilization of adequate financial resources to strengthen the resilience of economic development sectors in general and the agricultural sector in particular.