Seychelles, Morocco and Gabon co-hosts climate change side event |11 February 2020

PS Agricole speaking at the side event

“In order to protect the country’s coastline from ongoing erosion, the government of Seychelles has embarked on an ambitious and hide-reaching coastal management plan costing USD15 million,” said the principal secretary for Energy and Climate Change, Wills Agricole.

“The plan sets out a holistic set of priorities for coastal management including monitoring and research, coastal protection infrastructure, risk-based spatial planning and capacity building,” underlined Mr Agricole, who was speaking during a high-level meeting on ‘Climate Change: Adaptation Strategies for improved resilience in Africa’.

During this event, jointly organised by the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of Gabon and the Seychelles at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) on the sidelines of the Pan-African organisation Summit, Mr Agricole noted that the Seychelles has also launched many initiatives, with the Blue Economy being an important mechanism for the country to support its sustainable development goals and address climate change adaptation and ocean management effectively.

The objectives of the side event included:

• enabling policy makers at the level of ministers of Foreign Affairs to shed light on the existing adaptation strategies in Africa, and how to scale them up in order to support on-going climate actions on adaptation, mitigation and the building of resilience of the African continent;
• making recommendations on the means and ways on how the African Union Commission can assist member States in technology transfer and exchange of expertise;
• exploring means of capacity building in the development of early warning systems.

“African ministers of State pledged to accelerate initiatives aimed at strengthening Africa's resilience in the face of the climate emergency,” stressed the Minister Delegate, citing in this sense the African initiative for the adaptation of agriculture (#AAA) and the initiative for security, stability and sustainability (#SSS).

Other speakers and presenters at the event were: Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Republic of Gabon; Mohcine Jazouli, Minister Delegate to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriate, the Kingdom of Morocco; Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union; Dr Vera Songwe, executive secretary general United Nations Economic Commission for Africa;

Quartey Thomas Kwesi, deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission;

Jean-Paul Adam, director, Climate Change, Natural Resource Management and Technology at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

PS Agricole was accompanied by Dr Marina Confait, principal secretary in the department of Foreign Affairs; Kenneth Racombo, principal secretary in the Blue Economy department and Ambassador David Pierre, Seychelles’ permanent representative to the African Union.

Press release from the department of Foreign Affairs