By: Audrey John
Various stakeholders have on Wednesday 13th July 2022, converged at the Sierra Palms Hotel at Aberdeen in Freetown on a validation exercise of a UNIDO GEF 7 project entitled “promotion of climate adaptation technology and business model Innovation, entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone.”
Country representative, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Mariatu Swaray disclosed that the objective of the project is to support innovation, transfer and large scale development of adaptation-oriented technologies, product and services (TPS) in water, agriculture, and energy sectors in Sierra Leone.
She also disclosed that the project is structured in five components. They are: strengthening institutional and policy frameworks of adaptation, scaling up support for adaptation, financing access for vulnerable groups to acquire adaptation technologies, project monitoring and learning and project evaluation.
She added that the above mentioned components will remove barriers to MSMEs development by improving the business environment for climate adaptation innovation and will create an integral mechanism to develop innovation technologies. She furthered that the project will secure funding for adaptation MSMEs to grow and scale up their operations and will provide lending to vulnerable groups to acquire adaptation technologies, product and services.
Swaray also remarked that the project seeks to increase availability and accessibility of climate adaptation measures for most vulnerable communities and reduce exposure to the impacts of climate change. “The proposed interventions will be two folds. They are: making vulnerable communities resilient to climate change and boosting economic growth and innovation for MEMEs,” Swaray revealed.
She thanked the Government of Sierra Leone for the long-standing collaboration and continued support offered to develop the GEF 7 cycle in the country. “It is my pleasure to report that to date UNIDO and its partners have collaborated on the implementation of seven projects in the country within areas of trade, capacity development, energy and environment, job creation and climate change,” she told participants.
Swaray also mentioned that UNIDO and its partners seek to leverage the results obtained from the set of past climate change adaptation projects to support Sierra Leone in its goal to build a climate resilient economy.
“As you are aware, the private sector plays a key role in the economy and the climate change adaptation market and acts as an innovation catalyst. However, MSMEs still face several barriers that halt access to unlock innovation potential and address shocks and recover from them with reduced costs,” she revealed.
However, she mentioned that while the challenges persist, they also provide a window of opportunity for change. “UNIDO is aware that promoting climate resilient does not only address vulnerability, it also offers an opportunity for growth to local entrepreneurs and vulnerable communities,” Swaray added.
She went on to state that as a specialized UN agency, UNIDO supports countries pursue inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID), adding that it comes with extensive expertise in the area of climate innovation and entrepreneurship through partnership building and resource mobilization. “UNIDO promotes an integrated approach aimed at creating shared prosperity, advancing economic competitiveness, safeguarding the environment and strengthening knowledge and institutions,” she went on.
Director at Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sheku Kallay urged that the project, at the end of its implementation creates the right impact. Kallay added that climate change is not just about impact or mitigation, but also how to build the resilient of a nation to be able to cope with the impact of climate change.
“If we want to move forward as a nation, we must ensure that climate impact and livelihood interventions are linked,” he opined.
He also stressed the need for collaboration and monitoring mechanism in the project.
The validation exercise saw PowerPoint presentation by Alois Posekufa Mhlanga, Chief Climate Technology and Innovations Division Department of Energy, UNIDO, around the climate rationale behind the project, in line with the strategic vision shared by UNIDO and GEF, the role of the private sector, the cutting-edge solutions offered by adaptation technologies and the presentation of the project management structure which was followed by discussion and question and answer session.
