Mia Seppo’s immense contribution to UNDP Zimbabwe lauded

The outgoing United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Zimbabwe Resident Representative Ms Mia Seppo yesterday bade farewell to the Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Hon Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndhlovu in Harare.

The Minister appreciated the support that the UNDP Zimbabwe country office gave during the time of Ms Mia Seppo on various national development issues including environmental and climate issues.

Hon Ndhlovu alluded to a number of development initiatives during the outgoing UNDP representative’s tenure. Below are some of them:

• Support towards the National Climate Change Conference and Local Conference of Youths (LCOY) in September 2022 in preparation for COP27
• Support for the participation of Zimbabwe’s delegation to the climate change Conference of Parties of the years including COP27 and the support for youths participants
• Capacity building for Ministry staff and stakeholder associations on the Low Emissions Development Strategy and Nationally Determined Contributions towards facilitating wider efforts on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Zimbabwe needs this work to underpin more comprehensive work on emissions measurement and reference levels as part of the carbon trade
• Development of project proposals for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) such as the solar for health proposals and the ongoing resilience projects project in Southern Zimbabwe; the recently launched 12 million pound Climate Adaptation, Water and Energy Programme (CAWEP) supported by the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the UN SDG Fund Programme jointly developed by the Government, UN Agencies, Old Mutual and IDBZ and the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) Programme
• Support for the retrofitting of CAPRI’s refrigerator manufacturing plant to change over to ozone and climate-friendly technology that assists compliance with both the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and Paris Agreement
• A supplier for the equipment for CAPRI has been selected and issued with a purchase order to deliver the equipment. The equipment will be delivered in the first term of 2023.
• Support for the Hydro-chlorofluorocarbon Phasedown Management Plan phase II (HPMP II) project in Zimbabwe – targeting a reduction of high ozone-depleting and high global warming potential refrigerants,
• HPMP II aims to capacitate the Refrigeration and air-conditioning servicing sector, the project has to purchase the required tools and equipment. As a result, a contractor has been selected and has been given a purchase order to deliver the tools and equipment.

Possible future collaborations with UNDP

1. Developing a Programme for training negotiators and providing them with adequate tools for negotiations, building the scientific capacity, and building capacity for networking (immediately on completion of the identification from the applicants prior to COP27)
2. Enhanced work on scientific research on climate prediction (jointly with MSD and universities) we are seriously lacking climate prediction with a lot of unprocessed data that goes back to 7 years ago
3. Capacitating Ministry in climate advocacy, networking, awareness and education (collaboration with UNICEF) because the messages are disjointed and we need to prepare our people through public information reach

Hon Ndhlovu also appreciated the support from UNDP on the capacity building for Ministry staff and stakeholder associations on the Low Emissions Development Strategy and Nationally Determined Contributions towards facilitating wider efforts on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The work is needed to underpin more comprehensive work on emissions measurement and reference levels as part of the carbon trade.

UNDP also helped in the development of project proposals for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) such as the solar for health proposals and the ongoing resilience projects in Southern Zimbabwe; the recently launched 12 million pound Climate Adaptation, Water and Energy Programme (CAWEP) supported by the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the UN SDG Fund Programme jointly developed by the Government, UN Agencies, Old Mutual and IDBZ and the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) Programme.

The meeting was also attended by the Secretary for Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Ambassador Raphael Tayerera Faranisi, National Coordinator and Chief Director for Environment, Climate and Met Services Professor Prosper Matondi and other Senior Government Officials.