Support Centre
The Loss and Damage Collaboration's Support Centre provides on demand support on loss and damage related workstreams to negotiators from vulnerable developing countries. The centre has been established in response to demands from several vulnerable developing country negotiators for more support for their work on loss and damage related topics during the UNFCCC intersessionals and the COP. Support is delivered through workshops, assistance to draft talking points and interventions, and technical support to prepare for, and engage during ExCom meetings and UNFCCC sessions.

As part of the activities of the Support Centre, the L&DC also works to strengthen its support of young negotiators from vulnerable developing countries working together as part of The New Generation. The New Generation is a group of fourteen young negotiators from vulnerable developing countries that the L&DC works with to empower them as negotiators and strengthen their capacity to advocate for the most vulnerable on the frontlines of climate change in the global South. This work is being done in collaboration with the Climate Leadership Initiative, a fellowship program aimed at empowering young climate leaders from vulnerable developing countries through mentorship, training and coaching, and both a member and a partner of the L&DC.
See concept note here:
This is a project which started at COP25 in Madrid 2019. At that meeting of the countries who are members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, the Santiago Network for averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change (Santiago Network) was established.

The Santiago Network offered hope to frontline communities in the climate crisis that a body had been created to help them address loss and damage. This body would make sure there was action and support being provided on the ground in their communities including helping them access finance, technology and build their capacity to address these impacts. This was in the context of a world where climate impacts are increasing, and this is being felt by the most vulnerable people in our society who are the least responsible for climate change. These impacts are rapidly becoming worse.


This project started under the banner of the Loss and Damage Collaboration, an informal group of practitioners, researchers, activists and decision makers from both the global North and South who have expertise on a range of topics relating to the need to address loss and damage. It had a number of projects, including the Santiago Network Project which developed a committed group from a range of backgrounds led by Doreen Stabinsky and Heidi White who were concerned that the Santiago Network might become no more than a website.

The Santiago Network Working Group, as it was then called, has since been tireless in seeking to steer the negotiations on the Santiago Network from something that had become a website to something that had a dedicated negotiations stream under the UNFCCC, and a comprehensive decision with dedicated finance, agreed form and functions and a process for review. This included publications; advocacy e.g. interventions at meetings of negotiators on the Santiago Network and participation in and chairing of meetings of the Adaptation and Loss and Damage Friends Group which is led by the UK COP26 Presidency team; as well as coordination, capacity building, and support on the ground at the COP26 negotiations in Glasgow, United Kingdom in November 2021.

At COP26 there was positive progress, and the work of the Santiago Network Project will now shift to the 2022 negotiations where financial arrangements will be further elaborated and a decision will be adopted regarding the form or ‘institutional arrangements’ of the Santiago Network to finalise the decision to operationalise the Santiago Network and enable it to provide the help that vulnerable communities need to survive.

The Santiago Network Project is open to members from any background. It is important that our input into the negotiations is well-informed and based on the best available advice. We are particularly concerned to involve marginalised groups whose voices are not always heard to ensure the best outcome possible for the negotiations. We cannot be perfect but we can be ambitious and try as much as possible to learn from the past so that the assistance that is urgently needed is provided. These communities need help now and we need to ensure that the Santiago Network becomes effectively operationalised at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

For enquiries directly related to the Santiago Network Project please contact the Project Lead heidimareewhite [@] gmail.com
Team Members
Coordinator
Justina Aurea Belo
Justina is the coordinator of the New Generation and has been actively involved in different groups working on Loss and Damage since COP 25 in 2019. She is currently a consultant for the Montreal Protocol programmes implementation at the National Directorate of Climate Change in Timor-Leste. She follows Loss and Damage.
Advisor
ERIN ROBERTS
Erin coordinates with negotiators from vulnerable developing countries regularly to ensure the outputs of the L&DC meet their needs and provides on demand support to several negotiators from vulnerable developing countries. She also supports the New Generation, a group of young negotiators from vulnerable developing countries by organising a weekly check in which includes coaching, thematic workshops and mentorship which she does in conjunction with her role as convenor of the Climate Leadership Initiative.
The New Generation
Ethiopia
Yared Abera
A Global Youth Climate Leader and founder, Yared is also the Director of The Youth Print, an Ethiopian youth-led civil society organisation creating innovative youth projects to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Recently, he joined the World Resource Institute as a Research Analyst. Yared has followed the climate negotiations since 2017 and focuses on Loss and Damage.
Timor-Leste
Justina Aurea Belo
Justina is the coordinator of the New Generation and has been actively involved in different groups working on Loss and Damage since COP 25 in 2019. She is currently a consultant for the Montreal Protocol programmes implementation at the National Directorate of Climate Change in Timor-Leste. She follows Loss and Damage.
Rwanda
adeline cyuzuzo
Chief Operating Officer (COO) at The Green Protector and coordinator of storytelling working group of the LDYC, Adeline is driven by change and aspires to achieve climate justice by raising her voice and advocating for frontline communities. She has followed the climate negotiations since 2022 and focuses on climate finance.
Guinea
Alpha Amadou Diallo
Alpha is a mining engineer with a focus on environment and occupational health and safety in the workplace. He is certified in impact investment, public management, civic leadership and entrepreneurship. In his role managing projects focuses on environmental impact assessment and conservation. Currently he is Associate Partner and Project Manager for Greendeveeve Sarl and is also the Executive Director of Greentransformation2050, which focuses on ensuring environmental integrity and sustainable development in light of climate change. Alpha began following the UNFCCC process in 2022 and focuses on Loss and Damage.
Philippines
Jefferson Estela
A climate activist and community organiser as well as a visual artist, Jefferson is from the Philippines. He aims to humanise activism through storytelling to connect people to the environment. He co-founded Youth Strike 4 Climate Philippines, to empower the Filipino youth to act against the climate crisis and demand climate justice. Jefferson is currently Southeast Asia and Pacific Coordinator of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (LDYC).
Nepal
Prakriti Koirala
A climate action activist, Prakriti is working with the political leaders of Nepal with the aim of making the climate agenda a political and national priority. She is a researcher and a post-graduate environmental scientist. She is also a founding member of 'Land our Future' which is a youth-led movement to combat land degradation and climate change. Prakriti has been following the climate negotiations since 2021 and focuses on Loss and Damage.
Rwanda
Honorine Isingizwe
An environmentalist and climate scientist, Honorine is the co-founder and Executive Director of a youth-led organisation called Young Volunteers for the Environment (YVE) Rwanda; and a 2021 climate ambassador with Global Youth Climate Network; an initiative of World Bank Group’s Youth2Youth community. Honorine has followed the climate negotiations since 2021 and focuses on agriculture.
Rwanda
Sandra Isingizwe
Sandra is a community mobilizer at a youth-led NGO, The Green Protector, part of LDYC’s training working group and a junior negotiator following the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) article since 2021 at COP 26.
Malawi
Brenda Mwale
Brenda works with Green Girls Platform in Malawi, a female-led organisation focusing on women and girls in Climate Change. She has recently started working with UNICEF as a climate change youth advocacy consultant. Brenda is part of LDYC’s advocacy working group. She has followed the climate negotiations since 2021 and focuses on Loss and Damage.
Rwanda
Eva Peace MUKAYIRANGA
An environmentalist and co-founder of LDYC where she serves as the coordinator of the training working group and its programs, Eva is also the co-coordinator of L&DC’s finance working group and the Finance Officer for The Green Protector. She has followed the climate negotiations since 2018 and focuses on climate finance.
Vanuatu
Willy Missack
Willy works with the Vanuatu government on policy-making and advisory on disaster risk reduction and climate change programs, projects, initiatives, and activities by providing the CSO view to improve national climate change and DRR policy.
Rwanda
ineza umuhoza grace
Ineza is the founder of the youth-led Rwandan non-profit The Green Protector where she serves as an Executive Officer, and is the co-founder of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (LDYC) where she serves as Global Coordinator. Ineza has followed the climate negotiations since 2018.
Resources for Negotiators
2023
2022
2021
2020