Global Climate Change Alliance Plus, West Africa Component ( GCCA+WA)

The Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) is the second phase of an initiative of the same name launched by the European Commission in 2008 to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the fight against climate change (CC) between the European Union (EU) and the most vulnerable developing countries. The main aim of this 2nd phase is to take account of changing development challenges and thus contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations and to implementing the Paris Agreement (PA).

The GCCA+ initiative continues to support countries through two mutually reinforcing pillars: policy and technical dialogue and support for the implementation of national and regional climate change adaptation and mitigation policies, with greater emphasis on climate knowledge management and communication.

The priorities for the GCCA+ initiative are as follows :

• Strengthen the scientific and technical capacity of the sub-regions to reduce vulnerability to climate change;
• Promote the integration of climate change aspects into development policies, strategies, programmes and projects at sub-regional and national levels;
• Support the development and implementation of sub-regional and national programmes and projects on adaptation to climate change.

The GCCA+ Initiative comprises :

• A "Global" programme, made up of country-specific programmes under the supervision of local EU delegations
• An « intra-ACP » programme coordinated by the ACP secretariat, which is intended to work at regional level and has been divided into regional projects, including a section dedicated to West Africa and implemented by Expertise France under the aegis of ECOWAS.

The GCCA+ West Africa project, which is a regional version of the intra-ACP programme, aims to contribute to the West African regional effort to implement the Paris Climate Agreement.

The GCCA+ West Africa project is part of a regional cooperation initiative. It aims to contribute to the regional effort to implement the Paris Agreement and to strengthen West Africa's resilience to climate change. This project was innovative in more ways than one. The cross-border nature of climate change means that certain responses must go beyond the national level. The GCCA+ WA project is helping to increase the West African region's capacity to deal with the challenges of climate change, which cannot be resolved at national level alone, in accordance with the ECOWAS principle of subsidiarity. The project operates at different levels, from a regional perspective : International (climate negotiations within the framework of the UNFCCC); regional (political cooperation with the ECOWAS regional climate strategy, and scientific cooperation with the Agrhymet Regional Centre ( ARC) of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS); national (national capacity building for the implementation of the Paris Agreement); and finally local (climate-smart agriculture pilot projects conducted locally but whose lessons learned are shared at regional level). It is therefore based on: i) multidisciplinary action made possible by the commitment of regional stakeholders, ii) a multi-stakeholder dynamic guaranteeing a coherent response, and iii) a partnership approach serving regional institutions.