African Mountains Community-to-Community Exchange
Synopsis of Exchange
The Africa Nature-Based Community Enterprises Exchange ensured the promotion of information and coordinated knowledge exchange on best agricultural practices, biodiversity conservation, sustainable energy solutions, value addition, as well as cultural exchange in a changing climate. Furthermore, the exchange promoted gender-responsive climate actions by ensuring that there is the inclusion of marginalized people especially women, youth and other minority groups.
Participant countries: East African Community (Burundi, DRC, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) Southern Africa Central Africa Western Africa North Africa
Venue: Rwanda
Objectives:
- To create a platform for sharing information, knowledge and experiences on nature-based solutions and sustainable practices in the mountain communities in Africa.
- To facilitate bio-cultural knowledge exchange on community self-reliance initiatives such as climate resilient agriculture, as well as traditional cultural practices such as songs and dances.
- To build the capacity of mountain communities through identified innovative community interventions that can inspire mountain people from various communities across Africa and promote replication of such initiatives.
- To document the best sustainable development practices in the African mountain communities in videos and a handbook.
Deployment Status: Completed
Implementation:
In collaboration with the Government of Rwanda, ARCOS, Canada’s Climate Action in Africa Project through Alinea, organized the Africa Mountains Community-to-Community Exchange 2022, to celebrate the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development. This event kicked off with the celebration of International Mountain Day on 11th December and the following day on 12th December 2022, through media engagement and an online webinar. There were 21 exhibitors from the African Mountain Communities drawn from 15 countries that attended the Africa Mountains Community-to-Community Exchange at Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village (KCEV). This was an opportunity to promote knowledge sharing and exchange ideas as well as promoting resilience to climate change in mountain communities. There were three field visits organized to witness practices and learn from them. ARCOS organized visits in Sholi, Rulindo, and Gicumbi. The field visits were conducted on the 13th of December 2022.
Outcomes:
The key outcome of the Africa Mountains Community to Community Exchange was the Kigali Declaration. Under this declaration, the representatives from the various
mountain communities in Africa agreed to promote nature-based enterprises so as to build resilience to climate change and improve the livelihoods of their communities.
The majority of the participants requested ARCOS and partners to organise the community-to-community exchange at least every 2 years on a rotational basis in different African countries. The participants agreed to collaborate and continue sharing knowledge and experiences even after the meeting in Rwanda. As a follow-up plan, ARCOS will
continue coordinating with the representatives from the various communities to get feedback on how the lessons learnt are being implemented in the various communities.
