Overall NDC Equity Score
Insufficient
Emissions Reductions
Aspiring
NDC makes a strong effort to create ambitious emissions reduction goals, but may be too dependent on conditional targets.
Gender Justice
Insufficient
NDC made an effort to acknowledge the disproportionate impacts of climate on women and gender, but it insufficiently addresses long-term solutions or inclusion.
Youth Inclusion
Critically Deficient
NDC has significant gaps in addressing youth inclusion, potentially not addressing young people at all.
Summary
Sierra Leone is a West African country with a population of 8.9 million people. It is identified as a Least Developed Country (LDC) highly susceptible to the effects of climate change on its infrastructure, energy generation and industries dependent on natural resources. While it is a low emitter country, Sierra Leone contributes greatly in the climate space in the sub-region.
On youth inclusion Sierra Leone’s approach to intergenerational justice on climate change currently falls short. Intergenerational Justice in Sierra Leone is poor with young people mostly being receivers of policy decisions. Youth are rarely involved in the decision making process of climate change. There is no established mechanism that provides a platform for young people to take active part in policy processes. Many young people are engaged in climate activism in small youth groups and organizations and use these platforms to engage in climate change efforts. The government, however, develops climate change policies that benefit young people, but participation in those policy decision making as core stakeholders still remains very low.
On gender mainstreaming Sierra Leone historically stands in the bottom ten of the Gender Development Index (UNDP 2020). This is mainly attributed to the cultural norms in Sierra Leone. The NDC identified Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) as a priority sector and also indicated that the development process involved a broad based stakeholder engagement process, even though specific mention was not made of women.
Highlights
- The NDC identified Gender and Social Inclusion (focusing on youth, women, elderly, persons with disabilities) as a priority sector based on an analysis of national priorities contained in various climate change documents.
- The NDC promotes an inclusive and participatory approach to adapting to climate change so that the Government of Sierra Leone can unite under a common vision and speak with one voice on the issue of addressing climate change impacts.
- Sierra Leone recognizes the importance and emergency of combating climate change, which poses a major global threat and a common concern of the world.
- The NDC recognizes that women and girls are subject to a disproportionate amount of risk from climate-related natural disasters.
Lowlights
- The NDC sets very important mitigation and adaptation strategies as conditional.
- While the NDC identifies Gender and Social Inclusion as a priority sector, it doesn’t make any mention of youth or women as core stakeholders in the NDC Governance and Coordination Matrix.
- While the NDC recognizes the importance of Women and Youth, it fails to indicate any clear plans for women and youth involvement at the Policy Level.
- The 5% emission reduction goal for 2025 and 10% for 2030 is not ambitious enough considering the impact countries already experience as a result of climate change.
Key Recommendations
Despite Sierra Leone being an LDC and contributing very minimal emissions, the NDC made strides to set up emission reduction targets. The NDC also recognizes women and youth as vulnerable groups, however does not indicate strong measures to empower and protect them.
The following are key recommendations for the improvement of future NDCs and other national climate plans:
For Gender Mainstreaming
- The NDC should set governance and coordination mechanisms that place women in the decision-making levels in climate change adaptation and mitigation. While the NDC indicates to support partners in giving women a voice in making management decision making, no concrete policy commitment is made,
- The NDC should develop a gender-focused disaster response policy that places a premium on providing emergency relief and protection to women and girls as most vulnerable in a climate crisis.
- Establish clear performance indicators on gender-responsive targets in the NDC to measure progress towards gender equality outcomes.
- Establish Gender Directorates that focus mainly on supporting the implementation of Gender and Social Inclusion Strategies in the NDC within the Ministry of Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency.
For Youth Inclusion
- The NDC should institutionalize a youth engagement mechanism like a Youth Climate Council that can serve as a youth think tank for climate decisions and policy contributions by young people.
- The NDC should invest in providing climate education to young people through various capacity-building initiatives that empower young people to actively participate in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
- Access to finance mechanisms for innovative solutions to climate change and promoting a green economy should be heightened by the NDC in order to promote youth climate innovation.
- The NDC should develop a youth climate action plan that clearly maps youth involvement in climate action.
- Establish clear performance indicators on youth related targets in the NDC to measure progress towards youth empowerment outcomes.
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