Regional Climate Foundation

Turning Down the Heat: Building Resilience Across Africa

Regional Climate Foundation
  • Event date
November 16, 2026 | Monday
  • Time
16:15 to
17:15
  • Description

This event will explore how Africa can build resilience to rising extreme heat, using Senegal as a case study. It will also introduce the Africa Heat Resilience Hub and share key learnings from ACF’s ongoing project on Africa’s El Niño preparedness to set the scene and highlight the urgency and growing development risks associated with extreme heat in Africa.

A panel of government, international organisations and philanthropic stakeholders will examine what effective heat-resilience governance looks like, the roles of different actors and how stakeholders can work together to develop markets for heat-resilience technologies and scale locally relevant solutions. The discussion will also explore how adapting to a hotter climate can support economic productivity and create green jobs. The event will conclude with concrete implementation actions from participating stakeholders to support building extreme heat resilience.

  • Speakers

Moderator: Iva Detelinova*, Senior Advisor on International Cooperation | Lead Africa-Europe Cooperation, ACF

Panelists:

  • Rachael Barza*, Associate Director, Lead Climate Adaptation and Nature Finance EBRD
  • [To be invited] Marc Gordon, Senior Coordinator, UNDRR
  • [To be invited] Coumbma Ndiaye, Director General of the Agence pour l’Économie et la Maîtrise de l’Énergie (AEME), Ministry of Energy, Government of Senegal OR Fatou Dyna Ba, Director General (Directrice Générale) of the Bureau de Mise à Niveau (BMN), Ministry of Industrialization and Trade
  • [To be invited] Jessica Hitt, Senior Associate Director, Adaptation and Resilience, ClimateWorks
  • [To explore the possibility of adding a panellist from La Banque Agricole for a private sector perspective – potentially Abdoul Aziz Diediou, Large Corporate Account Manager]

*To confirm once the date of the event is known. Alternative representatives from these organisations will be provided if necessary.

  • Organizers

African Climate Foundation, EBRD, Government of Senegal and UNDRR