Finding Myself in Finance

8 July 2011

Mahlet Eyassu
Climate Change Program Manager
Forum for Environment
Ethiopia

Being a Southern Capacity Building fellow for the second time is a very big advantage for me. When I was one of the SCBP fellows last year I have acquired a lot of knowledge on how negotiations are undertaken and also CSOs role in the process. Even though the Bonn session in June was the second meeting for this year, the real work started only this time as the previous meeting was all about fighting about the agenda. Most of the first week of June looked more like the Bangkok session as Parties started their discussion on the agenda, which was dealt in Bangkok. As of 2011, in addition to being one of the SCBP fellows, I have a new role that is co-chair of the finance-working group in CAN. One of the greatest benefits of being a SCBP fellow is the experience of getting to know other fellows from different parts of the world and also learn about their works in their respective countries. Additionally, the different experience sharing sessions organized by the coordinator with people who have been in the process for a long time has helped me to understand the process more and also learn from them.

In the two weeks time I have been co-coordinating the finance-working group with a fellow from the SCBP program as well. The finance group has been very active in arranging different bilateral meetings with key countries’ delegates such as Norway, Australia, Bangladesh, Argentina, Japan, Malawi and also representatives from the Technical Support Unit of the Transitional committee that designs the Green Climate Fund.  With regard to the finance section in CAN’s Durban Expectation and the negotiations I have given a presentation at CAN’s side event and a press briefing. Since I did both the presentation and press briefing in these negotiations for the first time, I believe I have gained much experience in the preparation and also in the presentations. Additionally I also gave a short update on the negotiations at the end of the first week to GCCA that is shared in their website.  As this was the first meeting for this year as a SCBP fellow, I have taken every opportunity to learn more from others and also the process. I feel that I have gained more experience and will be continuing my engagement between the sessions so that I am more prepared for the upcoming sessions.