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bluemagic-girl · 5 years ago

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Let’s Walk the Talk to Defeat Climate Change – African Leaders Told — Global Issues

Floods in Kenya’s Turkana County, Lodwar the city. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

via Isaiah Esipisu (addis ababa, ethiopia)

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Inter Press Service

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Aug 28 (IPS) – African leaders had been requested to stroll the communicate, and lead from the entrance, so as to construct resilience and adaptation to the adversarial affects of local weather exchange on the continent.

This used to be the message conveyed via a number of audio system at the ongoing 8th Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA) convention in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“Our first urgent action is to build the Resilience and Adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change for the most vulnerable communities across Africa,” mentioned Dr James Kinyangi, the Chief Climate Policy Officer at the African Development Bank (AfDB), as he articulated commitments via the Bank on tackling local weather exchange.

“The time is now, to translate the (2015 Paris) agreement into concrete action, to safeguard development gains and address the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable,” he advised the CCDA discussion board which brings in combination coverage makers, civil society, adolescence, non-public sector, academia and building companions once a year to talk about local weather rising problems and to evaluate growth forward of the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP).

“We must challenge our leaders to walk the talk, and lead from the front in the spirit of the UN Secretary General, who recently pointed out that beautiful speeches are not enough to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement,” mentioned Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) an umbrella group of over 1000 Africa setting and local weather civil society teams.

So a ways, 53 African international locations have dedicated to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to decelerate the have an effect on of local weather exchange, figuring out the want for an estimated USD three.five – four trillion of funding via 2030.

According to Kinyangi, those commitments provide a chance for the AfDB to give a contribution to insurance policies and movements that mobilise the monetary sources wanted to fortify long-term investments in resilience and Africa’s transition to low carbon building.

In a not too long ago revealed interview, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina mentioned: “Africa cannot adapt to climate change through words. It can only adapt to climate change through resources.”

“Africa has been shortchanged in terms of climate change because the continent accounts for only 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions but it suffers disproportionately from the negative impacts,” he declared.

He mentioned AfDB is main an effort to create an African Financial Alliance for local weather, which is able to deliver in combination monetary establishments, inventory exchanges, and central banks in Africa, to broaden an endogenous financing fashion that will fortify Africa to adapt to local weather exchange with out relying on anyone else outdoor the continent.

Early this 12 months, tropical cyclones, Idai and Kenneth ripped via 5 African international locations – Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the Comoros each inside a duration of 1 month.

Kenneth is on report as the most powerful hurricane ever to make landfall, whilst Idai, is the worst ever hurricane in relation to loss and damages to hit the African continent, the place greater than 1,000 lives had been misplaced with harm of belongings price 1 billion US greenbacks.

“In Sudan, we have just won a democratic struggle, but we are faced by another catastrophic ecological crisis of monumental proportion, which, last week alone, killed at least 62 people and destroyed 37,000 homes,” mentioned Nisreen Eslaim, a local weather activist from Sudan, referring to floods that not too long ago swept via the town of Khartoum.

Since the risk of floods, droughts and heatwaves will likely be amplified with expanding local weather variability, mavens imagine that the perfect reaction technique is one who improves the resilience of economies, infrastructure, ecosystems and societies to local weather variability and alter.

“As much as we are trying to respond to climate related calamities, we need longer-term action for disaster risk management. Hence, a reason why we must do whatever it takes to implement the Paris Agreement,” Kinyangi advised IPS.

To fortify African international locations adapt to local weather exchange, AfDB has dedicated to making sure that a minimum of 40 p.c of its undertaking approvals are tagged as local weather finance via 2020, with equivalent proportions for adaptation and mitigation. The financial institution additionally seeks to mainstream local weather exchange and inexperienced expansion tasks into all investments via subsequent 12 months.

“As much as we will be mobilizing significantly, more new and additional climate finance, to Africa by 2020, we will keep pushing the rich countries to deliver on the pledged 100 billion dollars each year,” mentioned Kinyangi.

“As we know, our leaders’ focus is slowly but surely turning to other issues dominating international diplomatic interactions such as Iran/US tiff, Brexit, Terrorism and the emerging extreme right-wing movements, which constitute a risk of increased climate scepticism,” mentioned Mwenda.

“Our only hope is unity of purpose, and the purpose which brings us here in Addis Ababa – to contribute to a process which will shape the future of humanity and health of the planet,” added the PACJA boss.

According to Ambassador Josefa Sacko, the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the Africa Union Commission, there’s want for larger ambition in the combat towards local weather exchange.

“Without ambitious and urgent global commitments to tackle climate change, the ability of most African countries to attain the Sustainable Development Goals and the ideals of Africa’s Agenda 2063 remain elusive,” she mentioned.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, has convened a Climate Action Summit September 23 at the United Nations in New York, and has known as on all leaders to come to the summit with concrete, bold and life like plans to reinforce their nationally made up our minds contributions via 2020, in keeping with lowering greenhouse gasoline emissions via 45 according to cent over the subsequent decade, and to internet 0 emissions via 2050 as known as for via the IPCC particular document.

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<p><a href="http://www.globalissues.org/news/2019/08/28/25597">Let’s Walk the Talk to Defeat Climate Change – African Leaders Told</a>, <cite>Inter Press Service</cite>, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 (posted via Global Issues)</p>

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Let’s Walk the Talk to Defeat Climate Change – African Leaders Told, Inter Press Service, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 (posted via Global Issues)

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africapedia-blog · 7 years ago

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In This Part Of Kenya 1.3 Million Endure Poverty, Now Worst Drought In Living Memory Pushes More To The Brink

EVEN at the best of times, the people of Turkana live on the edge. Almost all of the 1.3 million inhabitants of this arid county in northwest Kenya endure extreme poverty.

Malnutrition rates are among the highest in the country. Since much of the land here is unsuitable for agriculture, most of the population raises livestock, herding animals long distances to find good pasture and plentiful water.

These days, both resources are in catastrophically short supply. Long dry spells and occasional droughts have always been part of the rhythm of pastoralism here, but Turkana, like much of east Africa, is currently nine months into one of severest droughts in living memory.

In February, when 23 of the countrys 47 counties were affected, and after the number of food insecure people had more than doubled, from 1.3 million to 2.7 million, the Kenyan government declared a national drought emergency.

SITUATION IS WORSE

Since then, the situation has worsened considerably. The annual long rains, which usually fall between March and May, ended early. It was the third successive poor or failed rainy season.

By August the number of food insecure Kenyans those lacking access to food sufficient to live a healthy life had risen to 3.4 million. According to a flash appeal published in early September by OCHA, the UNs humanitarian aid coordination body, half a million Kenyans fall into the category of emergency food insecurity.

In Turkana, very critical rates of global acute malnutrition (one of the key indicators of humanitarian crises) of up to 37% or above have been recorded in some areas more than double the emergency threshold of 15%. This is largely a result of higher food prices and a reduction in milk and food supplies.

Turkana is the epicentre of the drought, Chris Ajele, director of the countys ministry of pastoral economy, told IRIN in late September in Lodwar, the county capital.

The drought has rendered some families destitute, he said. In Turkana, the economy revolves around pastoralism, he explained. People attain their daily requirements through the sale and consumption of livestock.

In arid counties like Turkana livestock usually accounts for some 80% of a household’s income through sales of animals and milk. Livestock also represents a considerable store of wealth: Many herders with few other possessions aside from a wooden stool, a knife, and some cooking utensils own 100 or more goats and sheep, each worth around $60. Camels are worth more than 10 times as much.

500,000 HEAD OF LIVESTOCK DEAD

We have lost about half a million head of livestock [in Turkana] mostly sheep and goats, as well as cattle and some camels, Ajele said. High rates of livestock death have also been recorded in the counties of Isiolo, Laikipia, Marsabit, and Samburu.

This is mainly because the animals don’t have enough to eat. According to a chart complied by the UNs Food and Agriculture Organisation, things are only going to get worse in the months to come: In the map for November 2017, almost the entire country is shaded red, indicating extreme vegetation deficit. Just last year, foraging conditions in most of the country were either normal or very good.

And the longer a drought lasts, especially when coupled with over-grazing, the greater the risk that subsequent growth and reproduction of the grasses eaten by livestock will be compromised. There is strong correlation between foraging conditions and levels of human malnutrition.

“Drought is a part of life for pastoralists, but whereas they used to happen every 10 years, now, because of climate change, the gap is narrowing and they are becoming unpredictable”, said Josephat Lotwel, who works on drought response in Turkana for the National Disaster Management Authority. The forecast is that this drought will continue, malnutrition will increase, and more animals will die.

PASTORALISM WILL BE FINISHED

All the pastoralists IRIN met in Turkana said most of their herds had perished as a result of the drought.

“200 of my goats died”, said Joseph Lopido at a livestock market in the small town of Kerio. “I used to be a man. Now I live like a dog because I am poor.”

Lopido said everyone in the community was affected because getting enough food to survive was a real problem.

“Some of my family eat wild fruit to survive and sometimes it can cause health problems”, he said. “The only thing that helps us is rain. When it rains, the grass grows and the goats graze. How can we survive without rain?”

Lopido had come to the market hoping to sell his two remaining goats, but the prices he was offered were so low he decided to hang on to them.

According to OCHA, average prices of livestock in Kenya have declined by up to 40%, and the combination of low household incomes and high staple food prices has significantly reduced the livestock-to-cereals terms of trade. In other words, goats, sheep, and cows are worth far less maize than they used to be.

On the road to Kerio, camel herder Ebei Lotubwa was trying to flag down cars, waving a yellow plastic cooking oil bottle cut off at the top to serve as a jug he was desperate for water.

“This is the worst drought. There is no grass. It did rain last month, but they were only showers”, he said, explaining that 16 of his camels animals renowned for their ability to survive for months without drinking had died during this drought.

“To find water for our animals, sometimes we have to walk for 30 kilometres. That’s why we beg water from passing cars. Not everyone stops.

“When there is no rain, we get no milk from the camels.”

Another herder, Peter Okapelo, said 100 of his sheep and goats had died, leaving him with 20. “The only way for me to get more is for them to breed. But if this drought continues, these 20 will also die. I don’t know what I will do then.”

Asked about the long-term future, he said: “I think pastoralism will be finished because of the droughts. All the animals are dying.”

CLIMATE CHANGE BITES

In the absence of prolonged drought, pastoralism generally makes better use of open rangeland environments, and delivers better food security than other agricultural systems. It delivers greater returns per hectare, for example, than ranches.

And while often dismissed as geographically isolated and economically peripheral, the African Union recognises that pastoralists supply very substantial numbers of livestock to domestic, regional and international markets and therefore, make crucial but often undervalued contributions to national and regional economies in Africa.

Pastoralists have long coped with even thrived on wide variations in temperature and rainfall, but they are extremely vulnerable to the harsher weather shocks brought about by climate change in three ways: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.

As a 2014 paper on pastoralism and climate change adaptation in northern Kenya explains, pastoralists are especially exposed to climate change because in east Africa it manifests itself in increasing temperatures and higher rainfall variability with both escalating the likelihood of more frequent and extended droughts.

According to a 2007 study by the International Panel on Climate Change, Kenya is warming at a rate roughly 1.5 times the global average.

Without water points like this, many more animals would die. (Photo/Fredrik Lerneryd/IRIN).

The papers authors add that Kenyan pastoralists are particularly sensitive because their livestock depends on the availability of water and pasture which is negatively affected by climate change.

And on the third vulnerability, the paper explains that while pastoralists have developed their adaptive knowledge and skills over centuries, their options for adaption and economic assets have been limited by political and socio-economic marginalisation.

According to Johnstone Moru, who advises the county government in Turkana on climate change on behalf of German consultancy firm Ambero, the colonial and successive governments [in Kenya] had no proper policies on the development of arid and semi-arid lands, including pastoralism.

The International Livestock Research Institute sums up the chronic plight of those who live in Kenyas drylands: “With a dearth of alternative productive livelihood strategies to pursue, scant risk management options to provide safety nets in the event of shock, diminished rangelands and increasing incidents of violent conflicts, these populations grow ever more vulnerable to the range of risks that afflict them.”

SAVING THE FUTURE

That’s not to say nothing at all has been done, or could be done in the future, to make pastoralism in Kenya more sustainable and resilient to climate change.

Cash transfers, an index-based insurance scheme, an off-take programme under which the government buys livestock in times of drought to give pastoralists a monetary lifeline as well as meat from the slaughtered animals, and efforts to diversify sources of income through the promotion of agro-pastoralism and the processing of animal by-products, are examples of recent investments.

But there are shortcomings to many of these initiatives: The feed stores where pastoralists are supposed to spend their insurance payouts to ensure their animals survival are often far away; the off-take programme generally pays less than potential market rates; land exploited for agriculture tends to be close to rivers, blocking traditional migration routes; and a tannery near Lodwar, conceived to boost pastoralists income through the production and marketing of leather goods and launched with some fanfare in April, was entirely dormant when IRIN visited in September, with no clear timetable for a resumption of its operations.

The adoption in Kenya of a new constitution in 2010 set in motion a process of political devolution and led to the creation of county governments, with the aim of improving services better suited to local needs.

Turkana County’s 2016-2020 Investment Plan sets out 16 areas for quick wins in scaling up the pastoralism sector. These include exporting live animals; setting up feeding ranches as well as meat and processing plants; building more tanneries; and developing bio-gas projects.

But the pastoralists IRIN spoke to were less than impressed. “Devolution hasn’t made any difference I can see”, said Lopido. “The local government has built some structures, but we don’t have any food in our stomachs.”

-IRIN

In This Part Of Kenya 1.3 Million Endure Poverty, Now Worst Drought In Living Memory Pushes More To The Brink was originally published on Africapedia

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aliciawilliams015 · 7 years ago

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WHAT WORKS Many of World Vision’s development programs in Kenya are located in arid or semi-arid regions. Lawrence Kiguro, associate director of livelihoods and resiliency for World Vision in Kenya, says work to combat the effects of drought started in earnest in 2005 following several consecutive seasons of crop failure.

These efforts are legion. They include introducing communities to rainwater-harvesting technologies, drought-resistant crops, hardier goat breeds, and more. These methods are being replicated in more than 60 sponsorship-funded development programs in Ethiopia, serving almost 200,000 sponsored children.

Granted, these are mammoth tasks—not just to establish the programs, but also to educate local people on how to implement the new ideas and convince them of the benefits. But based on experiences so far, Lawrence remains confident that the effects of drought can be beaten. “I am sure we can protect communities if we continue to expand successful initiatives in new areas,” he says.

Lawrence points to World Vision’s standout project, the Morulem Irrigation Scheme in Turkana, Kenya, constructed with a combination of USAID grants and child sponsorship funding. The project uses a network of canals to direct water from the Kerio River to irrigate 1,500 acres of land, supporting more than 3,000 families. At a time when the food situation in other parts of Turkana has reached crisis levels, farms in Morulem are flourishing with maize, sorghum, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Morulem’s children are healthy and active. “We eat every day, and we never go hungry,” says Loice Akaran, 11. “I am able to concentrate in school.”

Tree planting is another method showing extraordinary promise in arid regions. Trees retain moisture and nutrients in the soil, inhibit soil erosion, and improve the climate. In fact, experts at the Center for International Forestry Research claim that forest destruction has done more than drought to turn vast areas of once grazeable and farmable land into “lunar-like” landscapes.

But this process can be reversed. An example is a joint World Vision/World Bank program in Ethiopia’s Humbo district, which suffered massive forest clearing in the mid-1970s. Through the rehabilitation of 2,700 hectares of forest, the program has drastically reduced soil erosion, improved pasture, reduced temperatures, and increased rainfall—not to mention provided income for the local community through the use of tree products.

Transformational programs like those in Humbo and Morulem prove that when sponsorship funding is leveraged by grants from strong partners, hunger emergencies can be prevented, despite environmental factors beyond our control. “Droughts will always be with us,” says Charles Owubah, World Vision’s regional director in Africa. “But, truly, children do not have to die.”

And those who have been provided the safety net of child sponsorship in the Horn of Africa are not dying. Sponsors’ support not only improves the lives of individual children but also helps make their communities better able to withstand the worst in times of disaster.

Famine-fighting is not in World Vision’s purview alone; the organization works alongside a vast array of humanitarian, government, and nongovernmental groups to provide long-term development assistance in the Horn of Africa. Collectively, these efforts raise hope that famine’s tragedy will not recur.

“We know how to do this,” declares Dr. Raj Shah. “It’s just a matter of getting the world together to get it done.” •

#world vision #famine #drought #horn of africa #sponsor a child #sponsor

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