Driving the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) from the Ground Up
At COP30, ARIN asserts that Africa must not only participate in, but lead the shaping of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). True adaptation progress will only be achieved when measurement frameworks are locally defined, inclusive, and rooted in Africa’s diverse realities. ARIN’s position calls for a transformative shift in how adaptation success is understood, tracked, and supported across the continent and globally.
Key Elements of ARIN’s Position
- Local Leadership and Ownership: Africa must own the adaptation measurement agenda, moving from being mere data providers to data definers. Local institutions, researchers, and communities should drive how adaptation success is conceptualized and measured.
- Community-Driven Metrics: Adaptation indicators must emerge from community dialogues and experiences, capturing lived realities, social cohesion, cultural practices, and gender dynamics, not just externally imposed technocratic models.
- Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI): Metrics and frameworks must be gender-responsive and socially inclusive, ensuring that adaptation progress reflects equity, access, and empowerment, particularly for women, youth, and marginalized groups.
- Contextual Relevance over Global Comparability: While global alignment is valuable, it must not come at the cost of Africa’s contextual diversity. Adaptation tracking systems must recognize the distinct challenges faced by rural communities, pastoralists, and urban informal settlers.
- Recognition of Indigenous Knowledge: Indigenous and local knowledge systems are proven pillars of resilience. They must be integrated into adaptation monitoring and decision-making to strengthen community ownership and innovation.
- Evidence to Inform Policy: Insights from ARIN’s Locally Led Adaptation Metrics for Africa (LAMA) initiative, the Pre-COP webinar series, and the State of Adaptation Report for Africa 2025 will feed directly into COP30 deliberations, providing negotiators with credible, locally grounded evidence for a just and inclusive GGA.
- Climate Justice and Inclusion: Africa’s adaptation narrative is a justice imperative. The continent faces the harshest climate impacts despite contributing least to global emissions. The GGA must embed fairness, accountability, and equitable financing that reflects this reality and centers genuine local participation.
- Redefining Global Frameworks: ARIN calls for the GGA to evolve beyond traditional, infrastructure-focused metrics. Success must also be measured through community-defined resilience narratives that uphold dignity, agency, and self-determination.
Summary Message for COP30
ARIN calls for a Global Goal on Adaptation that begins and ends with people
The success of the GGA will depend on how effectively it amplifies African voices, validates indigenous and local knowledge, and supports decentralized, community-led monitoring systems. As the world convenes in Belém, ARIN urges negotiators to ground adaptation governance in justice, inclusion, and context. Africa’s locally led adaptation efforts must be recognized not as side stories, but as the very foundation of the global adaptation agenda.