The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) has been ranked among the top 3 climate change think tanks globally in 2016, in an assessment published by the International Centre for Climate Governance.
The ranking also shows that ACTS, which co-hosts the Africa Sustainability Hub, is the top think tank on climate change in Africa.
The 2016 ranking assessed 244 think tanks, specialized in the research fields of climate change and climate policy. It assesses the most cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy, based on analytical data structured around organizational activities, publications and dissemination.
ACTS and climate change
ACTS currently leads high quality research, policy analysis, capacity building and partnerships on climate change. Some of the outstanding work that defines ACTS includes:
- leading action oriented research on what works and work does not work for Africa focusing on low carbon technology transfer, climate change governance and innovation system building.
- ACTS recently published and launched two books on climate change: one on ‘Enhancing Community Based Adaptation’ and the other on ‘Climate and Environmental Justice in Africa’
- working with partners to design one of the first online tools, the NDC Explorer, for analyzing the contents of Nationally Determined Contributions of all developing countries under the Paris Agreement
- ACTS is currently one of the climate change centres of excellence nominated to represent sub-Sahara under the International Network of Climate Change Centres of Excellence and Think Tanks for Capacity Building (INCCCETT 4CB)
- co-hosting the Africa Sustainability Hub – a North -South and South-South Partnership bringing together leading global think tanks to create a platform for building capabilities of African researchers and policy makers to debate and research sustainable development issues affecting Africa. ACTS co-hosts the hub along with the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (Africa). The hub is part of the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium convened by the STEPS Centre.
- helping African governments negotiate at the UNFCCC by providing technical and managerial support to the Africa Group of Negotiators
- helping governments formulate suitable climate change policies and programmes through convening stakeholder engagement roundtables
- acting as the Secretariat of the Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA) which brings together all stakeholders and government agencies to share lessons on enhancing adaptation for food security in Africa.
Informing research and policy
ACTS researchers are also playing leading roles in informing global sustainable development research and policy agendas. The staff serves as council members and advisors in the following initiatives: Elsevier Foundation, Elsevier sustainable development resource centre, Future Earth, Meles Zenawi Foundation and Kenya National Council for Persons with Disability in Kenya (NCPWD); UN committees among others.
Since 2015, ACTS staff have been invited to speak in over 40 panel discussions on climate change at international and regional levels. In 2015 alone, ACTS activities on low carbon development and climate change were discussed in several print media and televisions interviews locally and internationally.
Dr Cosmas Ochieng, the Executive Director of ACTS, reiterated that the centre is occupying a critical space in mediating Africa’s climate change and sustainable development agenda.
These comments were echoed by Dr Joanes Atela, the head of the climate change programme, who emphasised that ACTS is pioneering transformative models of partnerships, research and policy aimed at brokering knowledge between the international community and the African context.
Other members of the climate change team Mr Kennedy Mbeva, Ms Winnie Khaemba, Mr Charles Tonui, Dr Aschalew Tigabu and Mr Rubin Makomere among others voiced their desire to continue building ACTS into a centre of excellence for spurring Africa’s performances in the post-2015 SDGs.
For more about the ranking, please visit the Think Tank Map website.