Jacob’s Ladder Africa is delighted to announce the new cohort of the Africa Climate Ambassadors Programme (ACAP) 2024. The year-long programme, which is an initiative of JLA, Climate Action Platform-Africa (CAP-A), Africa Leadership Institute (AFLI), and The African Center, which all form the Africa Climate Action Advocacy Initiative (ACAAI) was launched on Monday, 19 February 2024 with Wanjira Mathai as the chief guest speaker.
For the second year in a row, JLA commenced the search for continental expert leaders from a wide range of sectors who can boldly integrate insights on climate action opportunity in their respective expertise which include renewable energy, green building, agriculture, health and sanitation, climate finance, energy and green industrialisation and the creative economy. This year we are proud to have 18 ambassadors representing Western Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa.
The objective of the Africa Climate Ambassadors Programme is to identify missing voices and understand their current perspectives, while equipping them with facts, helpful narratives, and skills and training to effectively communicate the opportunity narrative. The program also aims to connect ambassadors to each other and their networks, different decision-makers and amplify their voices through the platforms they speak through.
JLA therefore provides opportunities through professional circles and spheres of influence such as media engagements, interviews for social media, events and X-Spaces. We believe that through this, we will be able to nurture and expose leaders at the brink of the society to stand boldly and articulate real issues more.
Our launch this year was graced by Wanjira Mathai, an inspiring global leader, environmentalist and activist. She is the Managing Director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute, where she takes on global issues, including deforestation and energy access. She has been instrumental in climate change, youth leadership, sustainable energy and landscape restoration for women. She spoke about how leaders can leverage on existing, ready platforms to send their messages across, without fearing. She also highlighted the power of communication as a necessary tool in advocacy and if used well, can bring people together to solve issues.
This year looks bigger, brighter and better, as our plan is to advance the opportunity narrative in Africa in traditional sectors and spaces so as to democratize access to climate knowledge. We are also looking into skilling our ambassadors with the right tools to effectively communicate and so we will have sessions for media branding, public speaking, among others. We are also grateful for a partnership with Columbia University, who are coming in to equip our ambassadors on climate change and leadership.
Apart from amplifying our ambassadors’ voices across the globe, we will leverage collaborations and sustain strong global partnerships to enhance the advocacy work and a maximal approach towards sustainable development.
