The Ivorian government is entrusting the environmental impact assessment of the Abidjan Initiative to the French environmental impact assessment agency Genesis. The two parties initialled the related memorandum of understanding on 12 May 2022, as part of the activities marking the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification which is being held in Abidjan until 20 May 2022.
“This memorandum, which constitutes a starting point for a future partnership, will enable our country, Ivory Coast, to take up the challenge of the effective implementation of the Abidjan Legacy Program or Abidjan Initiative,” explains Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, the Ivorian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. In the deployment of its soil restoration programme called the Abidjan Initiative, Ivory Coast will be able to count on the support of the Genesis rating agency, which will intervene at all levels of the process and will periodically provide an independent impact report of the MRV type, i.e. measure, report and verify.
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Specifically, it will, among other things, identify agricultural practices that combine environmental and economic efficiency, communicate the environmental impact of the programmes over time to the various stakeholders, in this case the government, donors and international organisations, and finally certify agricultural production for international markets.
The Abidjan Initiative
The Abidjan Initiative was launched on 9 May 2022 by Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara on the sidelines of the COP15 Heads of State summit on desertification in Abidjan. The programme aims to mobilise US$1.5 billion to boost long-term environmental sustainability in key value chains, while protecting and restoring forests and land. It also aims to improve the resilience of communities to climate change in Ivory Coast and sustainably increase the country’s agricultural production.
Boris Ngounou