Upcoming Event: Rights, Seas, and Climate Investments – Building Coastal Resilience in Ghana

On 4th September 2025, the FIDEP and AbibiNsroma Foundation, in collaboration with coastal communities and national partners, will host a landmark capacity-building workshop at CENCOR, Accra. This event will bring together community leaders, fisherfolk representatives, youth climate advocates, policymakers, and regional development partners to advance a critical conversation: how can frontline communities shape climate investments in ways that protect rights, restore ecosystems, and strengthen resilience?

At a time when rising seas, coastal erosion, and fossil fuel developments are reshaping livelihoods across West Africa, the need for inclusive climate governance has never been greater. The workshop will spotlight coastal communities not as passive recipients of aid but as active architects of climate resilience. Sessions will interrogate the politics of climate finance—who decides, who benefits, and who bears the risks—and will ask how customary land systems and community knowledge can be reconciled with international climate frameworks.

Participants will engage in a powerful mix of testimonies, training, and collective problem-solving. From mapping pollution and exclusion risks, to designing rights-based response plans for oil and gas projects, the program emphasizes practical tools such as Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), social safeguards, and gender-responsive climate budgeting. These approaches are designed to ensure that climate finance becomes a vehicle for justice rather than an instrument of displacement.

The workshop will culminate in the launch of a “Declaration from the Shoreline”, a symbolic communiqué from affected communities to Ghana’s Ministry of Environment and Parliament’s Committee on Natural Resources. This declaration will articulate demands for stronger accountability in climate finance and reinforce Africa’s growing call for climate investments that are rights-based, people-centered, and ecologically sound.

Beyond a single event, this gathering represents the birth of the Coastal Communities Climate Action Forum, a platform that will connect local struggles to national policy and regional dialogues at the African Development Bank, the African Union, and the UN system. It is not simply about training—it is about shifting power, amplifying voices, and aligning climate investments with justice.

As the world grapples with questions of equity in the global energy transition, this workshop raises profound questions: What would climate finance look like if designed through the eyes of frontline communities? How can rights-based approaches reorient investments away from extractive models and toward just, sustainable futures?

The FIDEP and AbibiNsroma Foundation invites policymakers, donors, and civil society partners to follow this event closely. The urgency of climate impacts along Ghana’s coast demands more than technical solutions—it requires bold reimagining of governance, finance, and justice in the age of climate crisis.