From 8-18 May 2017 leading scholars, leading experts, and policy makers met in Bonny Germany to discuss on how to build bridges between sustainable development and climate change in the Interconnections Conference.

In this conference the Chairperson of Tanzania National Discourse Forum, who is also the Executive Director of Governance Links - Tanzania, Mr. Donald Kasongi, underlined key institutional drivers that may bring support to the acceleration of new climate economies at sub-national level in Sub Saharan Africa

The Theme of the conference was “Between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement - Exploring the role of the state, non-state and sub national actors. “

In support of lessons learnt from Lake Victoria Basin in Tanzania, Mr. Kasongi argued that while the convergence of SDGs and the Paris Agreement provided a perfect opportunity for action, local government authorities are caught up in a policy-to-practice failure to embrace and localize Nationally Determined Commitments for Climate change mitigation and adaption. 

Some of the key barriers he highlighted include but not limited to:  the ripple of emphasis towards funding-based solutions, paradox of power between national and sub-national governance levels, lack of conceptual clarity for vertical integration at sub national level and weak institutional alignment between public and private sectors. 

In his presentation, he said that in order to activate and accelerate sub national transition to climate resilience, consideration would be given to: working through a system approach to decision-making, strengthening agricultural extension and advisory services as entry points for working with community institutions.

He added that strengthening information networks, civil society repositioning of advocacy for social accountability resilience ,triggering community participation,  incentivizing  engagement  with private  sector  and research communities alongside  ensuring transparent trickle down of funding  streams wouldn’t be left out .