Address

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Type

NGO

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Email

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Telephone

+254746130873

Website

https://www.arin-africa.org/

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Activities

Thematic areas: Climate Change Adaptation in land and water ; Disaster Risk Reduction; Energy; COVID19 impact; Agri-food system ( fisheries; crop; livestock)

Specific projects:

1. ARIN is  supporting fourteen (14) county (sub-national) governments in the Lake Region in Kenya to co-develop a regional climate change plan as well as build their capacity on climate finance access. The Lake Region economic bloc (LREB) counties climate change planning and development for climate finance access started in 2019 with the funding support from the HYCRISTAL: Integrating Hydro-Climate Science into Policy Decisions for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure and Livelihoods in East Africa project. ARIN work directly with the directors of climate change who are the middle level policymakers and their governors who are the high level policymakers in translating research outputs into policy messages and capacity support to countries to access international climate finance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4XrRri6Ig). In addition, ARIN fellows scaled up the lessons from the county based policy dialogues to inform its engagement with  Kenyan Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Energy Kenya during a  pre-UNFCCC COP25 High Level Climate Change Policy Dialogue held in Nairobi City on 28th Nov 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk8EF1B4wNs. Out of the above engagements, ARIN, Walker Institute at the University of Readings in the UK and the LREB counties are working on long-term strategy to joint

2. ARIN is supporting UNDRR team to leverage Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) into cities in Sub-Saharan Africa including cities along the oceans (Indian  & Pacific).  These strategic initiatives has placed ARIN as a key network leveraging risk science to policy engagement at the cities level across Africa by linking up with city, sub-national, national and Africa Regional DRR platform.  ARIN has engaged some of the regional platforms in co-organizing regional DRR policy dialogues. These platforms include the Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction,  Connecting Business Initiative (CBi) based in United Nations Office at Geneva and UNDRR’ Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (UNDRR ARISE) which ARIN fellows partnered in 2021 to organize regional policy workshop to support private sector in Africa to integrate  DRR into their investments in Africa and the other regions. 

3. ARIN is leading the study ‘Developing the East African Regional STI Indicators and Web-based Electronic Database” aiming to strengthen the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) indicators data system and enhance the ability of the East African Community (EAC) countries to engage with this data in the decisions as well as in their learnings towards creating a more integrated STI landscape in the region. The study was commissioned by the East African Science Technology Commission (EASTECO). The study involved an in-depth review of relevant databases and existing ST&I scoreboards: such as AIOIII, GII, OECD scoreboard, UNESCO Science report, RICYT scoreboard, national scoreboards, among others to scope out relevant STI indicators applicable to the East Africa region. Additionally, an in-depth review of academic and policy documents was undertaken to assess the quality and relevance of indicators and understand the EAC STI context, including exiting and opportunities for building a web-based system. The study was also heavily informed by some of the recent strategic assessments of the STI landscape and indicators both in East Africa and Africa at large. These include the Assessment of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Metrics in Africa[1]  and the Understanding the Knowledge Systems in East Africa, both supported by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).[1] https://www.arin-africa.org/2020/07/16/science-technology-and-innovation-sti-metrics/

4. ARIN was instrumental in delivering the Science Engagement to support Evidence-Informed Policy Responses to COVID-19 in Africa project. In this project, ARIN has been supporting efforts by the African governments to produce rapid evidence syntheses to inform policy responses to COVID-19. In these COVID19 dialogue sessions, ARIN supported the Africa Academy of Sciences (AAS) through the Accelerating Excellence in Science Research Alliance (AESA) to undertake tele-convening and rapid synthesis of priority evidence for Africa’s Governments response to COVID-19.

5. ARIN held its first virtual inaugural International conference titled ‘Africa in the Post-COVID-19 World: Lessons for Research and Policy’ that was held on 18th – 20th November 2020. The 2020 inaugural ARIN conference brought together the global research and impact community together to deliberate on the critical global emerging issues in the face of COVID19. In ARIN Conference 2021, the conference took a different dimension to allow learning by adopting a reflective mode where approximately 30 high level research and policy workshops conferences and policy dialogues were conducted throughout the year under various themes were reflected on and critical lessons picked and documented for progressive dialogues, partnerships, research, and development. 

6. In 2021, ARIN in partnership with the UK’ Research and Innovation (UKRI) co-hosted pre-COP26 African led events which yielded three (3) high level Adaptation & Research in Africa reports (Africa -Led Adaptation COP26 Event Report 2021;West and South Africa -Led Adaptation COP26 Event Report 2021 and the East Africa -Led Adaptation Report 2021https://geodata.arin-africa.org/documents/15) and  blog series which informed adaptation research discussions at the UK’s Presidency of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) held in Glasgow in November 2021. The strategic interests and representation were drawn from the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), regional economic blocs (African Union, EAC, ECOWAS, and SADC) member states, climate researchers and climate change stakeholders from Africa and outside Africa. ARIN fellows got accredited as Party delegates by the Government of Kenya where they supported Kenyan and African Group of Negotiators (AGN) delegation at the COP26 negotiations.

 

7. At UNFCCC COP26, ARIN engaged high level policymakers and researchers in presenting Africa ‘position on adaptation research. ARIN positioned itself to co-host key side events in partnership with RINGO- research and independent non-governmental organisations (RINGO), the Resilience Hub consortium and partners at the UNFCCC COP27 to be held in Egypt in November 2022.

8. ARIN fellows have led and co-led development of impactful knowledge and policy materials. Some of the high level knowledge and policy materials, which ARIN fellows have contributed as co-authors include: The State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa report 2021 which ARIN fellows co-authored the Chapter on Private Sector. This report was launched by the Government of Kenya, the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) and partners at the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Day held in Nairobi, Kenya on 26th October 2021. ARIN is running two book projects: a COVID-19 Book project on ‘Building Africa’s Resilience in the Post-COVID-19 world: Lessons for Research and Development Priorities’ and the book on Decolonizing Methodologies to Sustainability in the Global South, which are expected to be produced in 2022. 

9. ARIN in partnership with international partners, which include the Frankfurt Business School training 50 fellows drawn from 21 countries across Africa over a 2 year period under the NDC-Financing Fellowship Programme (NDC-FFP). These fellows are expected to be champions of NDC financing research and policy in their respective countries and internationally and to be able to collectively strengthen the voice of Africa.  

10. ARIN continue to map and analyse stakeholders that contribute to research and policy discussions in such sectors such as agri-food systems, climate change among others relevant sectors in Africa. ARIN has developed a data centre https://www.arin-africa.org/data-centre/  that support archiving and provide easy access to comprehensive database for relevant stakeholders in Africa. Currently, ARIN has mapped and analysed approximately 3,000 stakeholders in Africa who either undertaking research, providing technical or policy support or doing multiple functions.   The multi-stakeholder database has enabled ARIN to support various multi-country and sub-national focused projects in convening policy dialogues and accelerating dissemination of research outputs across Africa and the globe. ARIN has regional focal representatives across the regional economic blocs of African Union who coordinate ARIN fellows and their activities in their respective regions but also contribute to the Africa wide engagements.

11. Training of East African policymakers on Climate Relevant Innovation System Builders (CRIBS):

Premised on a partnership involving the African Sustainability Hub (ASH) and ARIN fellows and the University of Sussex, East African policy makers and practitioners are now able to access training and capacity development (funded by the UK ESRC) on how Climate Relevant Innovation System Builders (CRIBS) work and can be integrated into the delivery of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). ASH is a partnership between STEPS Centre at the University of Sussex, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Africa Technology and Policy Studies (ATPS) and African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS). This was enabled through series of CRIBS trainings held between 2017 and 2019. The CRIBS workshops brought together key policy makers and practitioners selected from the East African region in addition to development partners who have supported climate change strategies, actions and innovations in Africa. The policy makers and practitioners were trained on various aspects of building innovation systems. The caucus provided one of the first platforms for East African policy practitioners, policymakers and their development partners to exchange ideas, experiences and challenges for building innovation systems for addressing climate change in the context of the sustainable development goals.

 

12. Capacity Building Programme on Accessing Green Climate Fund Access in Africa:

The aim of this capacity building programme was to equip the participants from Africa Union (AU) with the requisite knowledge on accessing the GCF fund. ARIN fellows in partnership with the African Sustainability Hub (ASH) partners organised series of GCF trainings:  1) In August, 28th  to 30th  2018 ARIN fellows and the ASH consortium in partnership with the African Union, Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (www.austrc.org)  held a three (3) day GCF training in Abuja, Nigeria where they develop Declaration on capacity building of the African Union’ member states.  2) Green Climate Fund Training Report, December 2016: Introductory Course on the Green Climate Fund delivered by the East African Climate Change Capacity Building Initiative (EACCCBI) under the Africa Sustainability Hub (ASH) hosted by African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), 6th -9th  December 2016 at the University of Nairobi, Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, Kenya

13. ARIN runs annual Africa Summer School series to strengthen the capacity of early career researchers (ECRs) in Africa to link research, policy and practice. ARIN and African Sustainability Hub (ASH) which is affiliated to the STEPS Centre UK held Africa Summer School 2021 “Decolonizing Sustainability Research” to facilitate ECRs to apply research in policy and practice. The summer school brought together at least 20 ECRs from Africa and diaspora. It also brought together approximately 100 researchers, academics, policymakers, private sector players and leaders of local community members who interacted with the ECRs at the research-policy side-events at the Summer School.