‘UNEA-7’: AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY'S PERSPECTIVE ON ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR A RESILIENT PLANET [current concerns 2-022]

 

28 October 2025 / current concerns 2-022

 

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‘UNEA-7’: AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY'S PERSPECTIVE ON ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR A RESILIENT PLANET

 

 

by Dr. Uzodinma Adirieje, FAHOA

 

+2348034725905 (WhatsApp) / EMAIL: druzoadirieje2015@gmail.com

 CEO/Programmes Director, Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) – CSOs Network and Think-tank

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INTRODUCTION: Following the unimpressive and non-inclusive preparations that are the hallmark of COP30 Belem Brazil, the seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) convenes at a pivotal moment for our planet. UNEA-7 is more than a diplomatic forum; it is an opportunity to translate global ambition into locally grounded action. From an African community perspective, advancing sustainable solutions demands that we centre equity, traditional knowledge, robust local institutions, and inclusive financing. For the continent — which bears disproportionate climate and environmental burdens while contributing least to their cause — UNEA-7 should catalyze partnerships that enable African communities to lead solutions rather than merely adapt to externally designed ones.

 

I. Sustainability must be reframed as a local public good that generates social as well as ecological returns: Investments in green infrastructure — climate-resilient water systems, off-grid renewable energy, sustainable transport and agroecological farming — should be measured not only by emissions avoided but by improvements in health, livelihoods and food security. Ministries in Africa, donors and multilateral actors need harmonized metrics that reward community-level co-benefits: fewer disease outbreaks, better school attendance, and resilient smallholder incomes. This integrated view makes sustainability politically salient and locally tangible.

 

II. Indigenous and community knowledge offers an undervalued reservoir of resilience: Across Africa, pastoralists, fisherfolk, forest communities and smallholder farmers have developed locally adapted practices — seasonal calendars, water-harvesting techniques, seed selection, and communal resource governance — that reduce vulnerability. UNEA-7 should endorse mechanisms for the ethical recognition, protection and financing of such knowledge systems, including legal safeguards that prevent biopiracy and equitable benefit-sharing for communities stewarding biodiversity.

 

III. Civil society must be placed at the centre of implementation: African CSOs play multiple roles simultaneously: conveners of community voices, watchdogs for environmental justice, innovators in low-cost technologies, and implementers of nature-based projects. To succeed, UNEA outcomes should insist on predictable, multi-year funding windows that are accessible to local organizations — not only through intermediaries based in OECD capitals but directly to grassroots entities. Simplified application procedures, technical assistance, and capacity-building for finance management will ensure funds reach communities fastest and produce the greatest impact.

 

IV. Financing architecture must be reimagined: Debt burdens and conditional finance currently constrain many African countries from investing in long-term resilience. UNEA-7 should advocate for blended financing models that combine concessional capital, outcome-based grants, diaspora investment instruments, and catalytic guarantees to mobilize private capital at scale. Climate and environment finance must also prioritize adaptation and loss-and-damage measures, not exclusively mitigation, if communities are to survive and thrive amid intensifying shocks.

 

V. Gender and youth inclusion are not optional: These must be treated as essential. Women are frontline environmental managers across Africa, yet they often lack land rights, credit access, and decision-making power. Youth are inventing circular-economy startups and reimagining agriculture with digital tools. UNEA-7 should promote gender-responsive budgeting and youth-targeted innovation funds, while supporting legal reforms that secure women’s tenure and entrepreneurial ecosystems that enable youth-led green enterprises to scale.

 

VI. Nature-based solutions (NBS) must be prioritized and rigorously governed: Restoring degraded landscapes, protecting wetlands, expanding urban green spaces and community-led reforestation deliver carbon sequestration alongside flood control, habitat restoration and livelihood opportunities. However, NBS can produce trade-offs — for example, when reforestation displaces grazing land. UNEA-7 should back best-practice safeguards: participatory land-use planning, free prior and informed consent, transparent benefit-sharing and social-environmental monitoring co-designed with communities.

 

VII. Data and accountability systems are critical: African governments and CSOs often lack real-time environmental monitoring at the community scale. UNEA-7 should champion investments in decentralized, open-data platforms that combine satellite, sensor and citizen-generated information. Community scientists and local monitors, supported with training and simple technologies, can produce credible evidence that informs local planning and holds stakeholders accountable. Data sovereignty must be respected: communities should own and govern local data, with clear rules on sharing and use.

 

VII. Global governance must be more responsive and equitable: UNEA-7 must commit to mechanisms that elevate African representation in global environmental decision-making — not only in numbers but in agenda-setting power. That means financing African-led research, ensuring African negotiators have access to technical expertise, and committing to multi-stakeholder processes where community voices are heard and acted upon.

 

UNEA-7 presents a chance to pivot from top-down prescriptions to community-led resilience. For Africa, the pathway to a resilient planet runs through empowered local institutions, equitable finance, recognition of indigenous knowledge, and inclusive governance. Global Civil society organizations like Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA), and regional networks such as African Network of Civil Society Organizations (ANCSO), stand ready to partner — to translate high-level commitments into village-level realities, to trial innovations, and to amplify community voices in every multilateral hall.

 

The ambition must be bold but the approach must be simple: resource communities, respect locally rooted knowledge, and guarantee transparent, accountable partnerships. If UNEA-7 can deliver on these principles, it will not merely produce another set of global targets — it will unlock the practical, scalable solutions that make resilience a lived reality for millions across Africa. The task is urgent, but the blueprint already exists in our communities: UNEA-7 must fund it, protect it, and scale it.

 

 

About this Writer: 

Dr. Uzodinma Adirieje is an environmental health researcher with Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA), focused on linking ecosystem health and human well-being in Nigeria. He is a global health practitioner, development expert, and civil society leader whose work sits at the critical nexus of biodiversity, health, and climate change. He serves as the CEO of AHOA, a pan-African and global South civil society network advancing sustainable development through advocacy, policy dialogue, and grassroots interventions. With over two decades of experience, Dr. Adirieje has championed the understanding that biodiversity is essential for human health - supporting food security, disease regulation, clean water, and resilient livelihoods. His leadership promotes integrated approaches that address environmental degradation, climate change, and poverty simultaneously. Through AHOA, he leads multi-country initiatives on climate change, ecosystem restoration, renewable energy, universal health coverage, and climate-smart agriculture, while advocating for stronger governance and inclusive community participation. At national, regional, and global levels, Dr. Adirieje engages with governments, international organizations, and civil society to drive policies linking health and environment. His work underscores that safeguarding biodiversity is not only an ecological necessity but also a cornerstone of global health and sustainable development in Africa and the Global South.