Menesia Muinjo

It is good news that for the first time Africa has a united voice when it comes to climate change. But this means nothing if the continent lacks skilled negotiators to represent their standpoint at an upcoming global policy conference.

When the United Nations conference on climate change takes place this December the world will gather to finalise the way forward in tackling this issue. But because many African countries are too poor to pay for skilled negotiators they may not even be heard said Moshe Tsehlo, a negotiator working with the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Association.

He said that pushing Africa’s agenda on a global scale will be difficult when some African countries hardly even have the money to pay for their return tickets to Copenhagen, Denmark. Some do not even have enough money to pay for their accommodation for two-week meeting.

Because of this, Tsehlo said, some African countries acquire the services of negotiators paid for by richer countries, which have trade or diplomatic relations with them.

Tsehlo, who has been a negotiator in the climate change discussions for the last four years, said this was a major problem. It was largely because negotiators, not paid for by the African countries they represent, were likely to deviate from the set common agenda.

“I would hardly sleep for the two weeks I was there. It is a major limitation in every meeting. Other countries, like the United States, have up to 300 people while an African country will only have two. While fresh negotiators come and go we stay throughout all the sessions and you get exhausted,” Tsehlo said.

He was speaking at the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) annual conference in Maputo yesterday.

He said a typical day at the policy sessions were not solely about negotiating. He also would have to lobby for the support of groupings with similar interests to his country; and to act as an intelligence officer (to identify the weak points of his opponent’s arguments and to use those to advance Africa’s agenda).

On top of all of this he would have to attend all the various sessions and remain up to date with the issues at hand.

“At the end of the day you are so tired. And this affects the quality of my input at the negotiation table.”

Joseph Mwenda, a climate change officer at the All Africa Conference of Churches based in Nairobi, is also concerned about the lack of continuity and consistency when it comes to climate change negotiations.

Mwenda said some governments often change their negotiators or delegates resulting in a constant stream of new people who have to quickly get up to speed with policy issues. This, he said, is a hindrance to the progress of policy negotiations.

“It makes a mockery of the discussions as some negotiators have not fully grasped the importance of the issues raised at these meetings,” Mwenda said.

FANRPAN CEO, Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda also said there were challenges facing Africa’s negotiation at Copenhagen. She said some negotiators were not even visible during the sessions. Sibanda said there was a tendency for delegates to end up doing other things such as shopping during key debates.