Post-Covid-19 Reconstruction and Biodiversity in Africa

A webinar moderated by Aleksandar Rankovic, Coordinator, Post-2020 International Biodiversity Governance, IDDRI.
With:

• Jeanne N’Tain, Negotiator for Côte d’Ivoire at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
• Wadzi Mandivenyi, Negotiator for South Africa at the Convention on Biological Diversity
• Francis Ogwal, Co-Chair of the Negotiating Group on the Post-2020 Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ouganda
• Basile van Havre, Co-Chair of the Negotiating Group on the Post-2020 Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada.

What challenges and what needs for regional and international cooperation? What expectations with regard to biodiversity COP15?
The Covid-19 crisis came in what was the final stretch of preparations for biodiversity COP15, which should now be held in 2021, in China. The economic repercussions of the crisis accentuate the budgetary pressures on countries, in a context where the available funding for biodiversity policies was already insufficient compared to identified needs. Large-scale investment programs will be envisaged, to address the risk of food insecurity, to revive economic growth, ensure access to energy, develop jobs, with a feeling of urgency. In this context, biodiversity issues risk being sidelined. This further strengthens the need for coordination and cooperation, between countries in the same region and between regions.
African countries are major diplomatic players in the multilateralism on biodiversity: on the road to COP15, it is important to share more fully the understanding of the challenges posed by the post-Covid-19 reconstruction on the continent, the needs of regional and international cooperation, and the expectations of the African Group vis-à-vis COP15…
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