The African Union Commission (AUC)

Application Deadline: July 29th 2016

Call for proposals : To host a side event and exhibit in the Africa Pavilion
Where: Marrakesh, Morocco
When: 7th – 18th November 2016

The African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) are pleased to call for proposals to host side events at the African Pavilion during COP22/CMP12 in Marrakesh from the 7^th to 18^th November, 2016.

The concept of an Africa Pavilion at the UNFCCC COPs was launched at the COP 17/CMP 7 in Durban, , pursuant to the decision by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in its 16th Ordinary Session held in February 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Assembly Dec. 342 (xvi)). The African Pavilion at COP22/CMP12 will be the hub of African events and a venue for networking of participants drawn from policy, science and practice communities. The African Pavilion will seek to highlight the African climate change and development agenda and will endeavour towards framing the discussions and outcomes at the COP22/CMP12 in the context of African development priorities.

The organizing committee invites proposals to host 90-minute climate related side events in venue of the Africa Pavilion at the site where the COP22 will be held from 7 to 18 November, 2016.

The side events are intended to provide opportunities to identify and address critical themes, fundamental questions in the climate change negotiation process as well as priorities and pressing practical issues on climate change and development in Africa.  Reflections that bring together the public and private sector to facilitate comparative, interdisciplinary and cross-institutional interchange on Africa’s climate change and developmental related issues are particularly encouraged.

Thematic areas for proposals

Proposals for side events are invited under the following broad thematic areas:

1. Transparency and Accounting Mechanisms
2. Achieving balance between mitigation and adaptation
3. Climate Finance
4. Loss and Damage
5. Pre-2020 Ambition
6. Technology Transfer
7. Growth and Industrialization
8. Adaptation
9. Mitigation

Proposals must be prepared using the template provided here and submitted on-line at http://www.climdev-africa.org/cop21/cop22 proposal submission by 29th July, 2016.

Entries will be reviewed by a technical committee drawn from members of the organizing committee against the criteria listed below, whilst seeking a balance of topic areas. The decision of the committee is final. Applicants of selected proposals will be contacted on or after Friday 5^th August.

Selection criteria (weighting shown in brackets):

While Side Events are an excellent means to communicate progress on selected initiatives and, feedback from the Africa Pavilion in COP21 was that there were too many of them from which to choose,  it is therefore strongly advised that suggested fewer and more linked/or coordinated events will have to be organised at Africa Pavilion during COP22. It is important to note that the proposing organization will serve as the lead organizer and responsible for everything during the side event.

The following criteria will be taking into consideration when selecting side events:

• Africa relevant (20)
• CoP22 relevant (i.e. relating to current topics in the negotiation) (10)
• Well-structured proposal with a number of (4 or 5) key topics / questions to be addressed or projects / interventions to be discussed (10)
• Clear objectives and output (10)
• Potential for supporting publications – pre / post event (please detail – blogs to provide build up, technical papers or briefing notes to explain concepts before or after are encouraged) (10)
• Speakers identified and confirmed availability (10) 
• Speakers from diverse sources / representing varied stakeholders – e.g. African and Non-African Parties, donors, IFIs, consultants, private sector, BINGOs and civil society (10)
• Stand-by provisions in case speaker(s) unavailable (5)
• Collaboration among institutions to host side events (5)
• Side event’s clearly aligned with one or two thematic areas of Africa Pavilion (5)
• Slides to be made available for uploading (please confirm) (5)

Terms and conditions

• The organizing committee will try to accommodate timing requests but makes no guarantees and reserves the right to alter the schedule of events.
• Participants and their speakers are responsible for gaining access to the CoP22 and to the venue (must be registered for COP22). The organizing committee has no authority to grant or secure access to the site.
• Participants are responsible for all of their own costs.
• Side event’s without any thematic area will note be considered for processing.
• Organizers of selected events are required to present themselves to the Side Event Coordinator’s desk no later than 30 minutes before the start of the side event in order to:
  • Collect prepared or blank name plates for speakers; and
  • Provide copies of power point presentations from their speakers via memory stick. Alternatively, presentations can be emailed in advance.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Call for Proposal to host Side Event & Exhibit in the COP22 Africa pavilion, Marrakesh, Morocco