ACCRA Hands over Equipment to CCARDESA as it starts to wind up Operations
“The outputs that GIZ Adaptation to Climate Change in Rural areas in Southern Africa (ACCRA) produced, including the knowledge products will continue to benefit the stakeholders now and in the next 30 years”, these were the resounding words of CCARDESA’s Executive Director Dr Cliff Dlamini during the ACCRA handover ceremony of a Ford Kuga motor vehicle and other office equipment. The colourful event was held at CCARDESA Secretariat on 4th December 2020 and graced by staff from both CCARDESA and the ACCRA programme. Also, in attendance was the GIZ -Transboundary Use and Protection of Natural Resources Programme (TUPNR) Manager Dr Dieter Nill.
Dr Dlamini was quick to note the ACCRA programme support to CCARDESA to develop its long-term strategy and Medium Term and Operation Plan (MTOP) and was glad that the work that CCARDESA has achieved with GIZ will go a long way in ensuring that the research and agricultural development mandate of CCARDESA is carried forward for the benefit of the all the SADC member states.
The ACCRA handover ceremony comes after 5 years of successful programme implementation and operations in the SADC region. The programme has a two-phased approach of winding up with the first happening this December and the final one taking place at the end of March 2021. The final winding up will be mostly internal activities with no external activities taking place hence the handover of the equipment to CCARDESA.
CCARDESA becomes the fortunate recipient of the GIZ/ACCRA equipment because it has been hosting and working very closely with the ACCRA since 2016. According to the ACCRA programme Manager Ms Hanna Sabass, her programme supported CCARDESA to implement 3 major components including regional knowledge dissemination on climate-smart agriculture, climate proofing of agricultural value chains and accessing climate finance. Ms Sabass indicated how under the knowledge dissemination component, the ACCRA programme endeavoured to translate knowledge for extension through the development of the CCARDESA mobile app and strengthening the ICKM system overall. She appreciated the fact that CCARDESA through its programmes will further the agenda of knowledge translation so that it can reach the unreached in SADC member states. She also highlighted the rapid increase in usage of the CCARDESA website and knowledge hub after CCARDESA relaunched the website from less than 300 to close to 5000 among other achievements through ACCRA support.
Ms Sabass also shared how CCARDESA with ACCRA successfully implemented the climate-proofing projects of the sorghum value chain in Lesotho & Botswana, the climate-proofing of the maize-legume systems in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe and the Herding for Health programme in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In these projects and beyond strong partnerships were formed with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), the Rural Self-Help Development Association (RSDA) in Lesotho, Conservation International (CI) and Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) – who spearheaded the implementation of these Member State projects.
In addition, Ms Sabass highlighted its support under the climate finance component, which was evidenced by the resource mobilisation for climate-smart agriculture which was done through various investment proposals with CCARDESA and numerous regional and national stakeholders.
Ms Sabass cited with gladness that the ACCRA team worked extremely well with CCARDESA team as they felt part and parcel of the Secretariat. She also observed that the measure of success is seen by what CCARDESA and ACCRA have achieved together.
Speaking at the same function, Dr Dieter Nill urged staff that GIZ will continue working with CCARDESA as most of the activities that the ACCRA programme was doing will continue on a follow-on programme called Climate Resilience and Natural Resources Management (CC-NRM) which is follow-on measure based on best practices of the ACCRA programme and the Transboundary Use and Protection of Natural Resources Programme(TUPNR). He hoped for the continued collaboration and partnership and more joint initiatives.
The ceremony ended with the ACCRA programme handing over a white Ford Kuga and assorted office equipment including laptops, furniture, and printers among other things. Dr Dlamini thanked the ACCRA programme Manager for the kind gesture.
Ms Hanna also took time to thank the ACCRA dedicated team for their hard work in achieving the programme mandate. Dr Dlamini was also on hand to hand over gifts to the 3 ACCRA staff and 1 CCARDESA staff who were bidding farewell to the organization.
