Bantu Mabaso | Building climate resilience from the inside out

In a conference room in Mbabane, Eswatini, over one hundred voices - from government ministers and private sector leaders to civil society advocates and academics - came together to forge their nation’s path toward a climate resilient future. This two-day validation workshop, which we at Genesis Analytics were privileged to facilitate, was far more than a procedural event. It was the beating heart of a more effective model for global climate action: one built from the inside out.

As an African firm and a trusted advisor to the NDC Partnership, our role is to support, not to direct. There, in Eswatini, working in partnership with local consultants from the University of Eswatini and ESEPARC, with support from the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs and UNDP, we witnessed a powerful truth. For national climate strategies to transcend ambition and become tangible action, they must be co-created by the stakeholders they are designed to serve. This is not a theoretical ideal; it is a practical necessity, born from our extensive on-the-ground experience supporting 25 countries, most in Africa.

This work comes at a pivotal moment. With the next UNFCCC Synthesis Report on the horizon, the majority of countries are completing their revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), their third iteration, or NDC 3.0. These documents are the core of the Paris Agreement, yet too often risk being technical exercises, distant from the people they affect. We are dedicated to closing that gap by applying our unique joint solutioning approach, a deeply collaborative and stakeholder-driven methodology that informs all our work, from supporting the development of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems to mainstreaming just transition principles.

The Eswatini workshop crystallised the logic of this people-centred approach. We built upon our previous experience supporting the development of  the country's NDC Implementation Plan to lay a foundation for success through three core pillars:

Building national ownership: When a climate strategy is shaped by a chorus of diverse voices, it becomes a shared national commitment, not a distant policy. 

Integrating multiple perspectives for a comprehensive assessment that informs robust, context-specific solutions: Stakeholders brought ground-truth data and sector-specific insights that technical assessments alone cannot capture. This diversity of input makes the final strategy more resilient and responsive to unique local challenges and opportunities.

Ensuring legitimacy and accountability: A transparent, co-created process lends profound legitimacy to the final climate commitments. It empowers all partners - from community groups to development partners - to hold each other accountable for turning pledges into action.

The insights gathered during the stock take validation workshop proved instrumental, forming the evidence base for Eswatini’s NDC 3.0 which was endorsed by stakeholders at a national validation workshop on September 19. Eswatini’s NDC 3.0 revision process affirmed that the true role of organisations like ours is to act as a trusted partner, supporting this vital process of building climate action from the inside out.

We will strive to continue supporting countries to strengthen their national processes for inclusive dialogue and participatory planning.  From there, we can then build a bridge between these nationally owned priorities and global partnerships to pool resources and expertise for successful implementation. For it is only by starting from within that we can build a truly resilient future for all.

To explore how our team can support your country’s climate journey, you can contact us on: marcelat@genesis-analytics.com