The Government of Guyana has been invited to participate in the first Climate Change and Development for Africa (CCDA) Conference which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from October 17th 19th 2011. The Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev Africa) Framework Programme calls for the organisation of an annual conference which serves as a stakeholder forum on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA). The ClimDev Africa Programme is a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank (AFDB).
The programme has been mandated at regional meetings of African Heads of State and Government, as well as by Africa’s Ministers of Finance, Planning and Environment, and responds to the urgent challenge that climate change poses to the advancement of Africa’s development objectives.
More concretely, it seeks to address the need for greatly improved climate data and information.  The themes to be addressed during the conference will be Climate Science, Data, Information and Service Delivery; Climate Resilience Development and Adaptation; Climate Resilience and Low Carbon Development in Africa; and Economics and Finance.
The Government of Guyana will be represented at this high level forum by the Honourable Jennifer Webster, Minister within the Ministry of Finance who will be representing His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo as one of the panellists at the High Level Dialogue Roundtable discussions.Guyana will highlight the importance of issues relating to financing climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries and funding for adaptation for the most vulnerable developing countries, which include LDCs, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and countries in Africa. During Guyana’s presentation, key issues such as our major response to Climate Change, elements in the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), including mitigation and adaptation will be highlighted. It is well-known that Guyana has demonstrated international leadership in the area of Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD Plus).  Spearheaded by President Jagdeo’s leadership, Guyana’s advocacy in the area of forest mitigation has led to this country being selected as Co-Chair for the Internal REDD Plus Partnership for the second-half of this year.