The Team Lead, Dr George Wamukoya, OGW was on a working visit to Nigeria with his team which comprises Dr David Awolala, Leon Mulama and Grace Kaimburi in October 2024. The AGNES team had series of meetings with major partners to foster collaborations in addressing some aspects of the nexus of climate research, policy and practice in Nigeria. The team visited the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) Office, where the NILDS and the AGNES briefed each other about the ongoing parliamentary work-related activities.
The AGNES and NILDS signed a much-awaited MOU
The Team Lead of AGNES, Dr. George Wamukoya, OGW and Director General of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman officially signed the long much-awaited MoU between the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) and National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) Abuja thereby solidifying the existing long-standing relationship of the two organizations. The teams further appraised each other of their current work programmes which included AGNES’ Strengthening Programme for African National Parliaments, Climate Leadership Capacity Building, the NDC Delivery Lab as well as NILDS’ Advanced Parliamentarians Training Programme. The Director General of NILDS further pledged support to the AGNES through an official approval of the use of its facilities and resources to realise their common objectives of strengthening Parliamentarians capacity on climate change policy and action.
What the signed MOU means for parliamentary engagements
With the MOU signed, the two sides are now focused and more intentional to achieve thei common objectives of strengthening the parliamentarians on climate change issues. The main objective of the two parties under the MoU is to establish a long-term relationship for purposes of exploring complementary research, institutional development and capacity development plan to advance their respective mission on parliaments’ role in strengthening the international response to climate change. The other objectives under the MOU include:
- Raise awareness and understand Parliaments’ roles in building cross-party support for addressing national climate risk towards implementing national and international climate change commitments
- Strengthening and facilitating Parliaments’ role in showcasing best tools and practices on legislation to enhance representation, oversight, and accountability
- Create climate champions among Parliaments in strengthening readiness to oversight, appropriate budgets and implement climate policies and actions
- Research cooperation to generate, analyse and share evidence that inform climate and agriculture policies, thus mainstream climate change into national development planning processes and decision-making
- Enhance the link between African Parliamentarians and facilitate greater interaction between counterparts from the Global North (such as the US Congress, UK Parliament, EU Parliament, and United Nations) and championing greater access to UN negotiations for legislators
- Capacity building and training programmes in scaling Parliamentarian Action Plan on climate change, including Climate Governance, Diplomacy and Negotiations Leadership Programme that strengthen legislation-policy-practice interface.
The Nigerian National Assembly interests in the AGNES Parliamentary work
In partnership with the NILDS, AGNES has established a working relationship with the Nigerian Parliament. Nigerian Parliamentarians expressed great interest in the arrangement and commended AGNES for the efforts in strengthening Parliamentarians on different aspect of their oversight functions. The AGNES informed the Parliamentarians on the establishment of the Africa Network of Parliamentarians on Climate Change (ANPCC), the progress on the development of the Climate Change Model Law to be adopted by African countries, the Training Curriculum for sensitizing Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Staff on Climate Change issues, and the Development of a Monitoring and Accountability Tool in tracking progress of climate policy implementation and action.
In-depth dive into the Monitoring and Accountability Tool demonstration
The AGNES was privileged to introduce the Monitoring and Accountability Tool to the Nigeria National Assembly selected Committee Chairs, Parliamentary Staff, including the ICT team. The main features of the tool and its applications for climate policy action tracking were explored. Comparative analysis with some existing tools was also discussed. The component of GIS and Remote Sensing in the M&A tool is an innovative intervention for the National Assembly. The friendly interface and easy usability were considered very impressive. The Parliamentarians and the Parliamentary ICT staff provided some valuable feedback for some improvements. As AGNES focuses on these improvements, the Nigerian Legislature has pledged to provide credible data sources to ensure credibility, security and relevance of the tool in Nigeria.
Conclusion
The outcomes of the AGNES team’s visit to Nigeria will accelerate the ongoing work on strengthening national parliaments on climate change. The AGNES-NILDS partnership will speed up some future engagements which include the validation of the Change Model Law, the training curriculum for the parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, and the Monitoring and Accountability tool for national parliaments to enhance their oversights on climate policy implementation and support increase domestic financing to meet national commitments on climate action.
Further engagements with the Nigerian House of Representatives will continue to improve on the Monitoring and Accountability Tool 4.0. Likewise, in partnership with the NLDS, AGNES will be conducting a retreat to validate the Model Climate Change Law for Africa by bringing different Parliamentary staff, lawyers, and legal drafters, officer, barristers across selected African countries for the iteration exercise.