The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE government has started engaging senior officials at provincial level to accelerate efforts of ensuring climate change mainstreaming in development planning.
The development comes amid workshops with district officials as it ensures that the climate change message cascades down to the lowest levels of the country’s communities as its effects are cross cutting and felt by many.
Speaking at one of the sensitisation workshops at a city hotel Friday, deputy minister in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Barbra Rwodzi implored government departments to seriously consider mainstreaming climate change in their budgets and planning.
She said the time to act was now as the global phenomenon was manifesting itself in extreme weather events that were affecting livelihoods.
Provincial secretaries for devolution attending a climate change sensitisation workshop in Bulawayo
Deputy minister Rwodzi urged provincial secretaries to collaborate with her ministry and ensure climate change was strengthened and tied to the devolution agenda.
“We need to mainstream climate change in our budget and development planning. It has become a global problem and as a country we should work together to strengthen our adaptation and mitigation measures so that we build resilience in our communities,” she said.
Speaking during the same meeting the ministry’s permanent secretary Mr Munesushe Munodawafa said climate change was a reality that could no longer be ignored. He said it was only proper for communities through provincial secretaries for devolution to factor in climate change in their planning and budgeting process.
He said it was absurd for the nation to pretend that things were normal when evidence backed by studies was pointing to the contrary.
“Climate change is real and the sooner we plan and include it in our budgets the better. With adequate knowledge we can be able to lessen its impacts. So, we are imploring all departments to mainstream climate change in their budgets,” said Mr Munodawafa.
He said climate change was manifesting itself in a number of ways such as frequent droughts and previously unknown weather as cyclones and prolonged dry spells.
“We never used to have cyclones in Zimbabwe but if you see now, their frequency is increasing. So, this calls for stakeholders to plan on how they are going to respond to such issues when they occur,” he said.
Deputy director Climate Change Management Department Mr Kudzai Ndidzano said there was need to put in place a roadmap to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.
“We also need to ensure that our communities build resilience (the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning) through adoption of environmentally friendly and sustainable approaches to their way of life,” he said.
He said low rainfall meant poor agriculture performance in communities and called for everyone to be on board in as far as planning for climate change is concerned. Mr Ndidzano said it was important for communities to take early warning systems seriously and urged institutions to ensure their buildings were safe from such issues as cyclones.
Climate change scientist Ms Emily Matingo said the idea was to ensure no-one was left behind in the climate change discourse. She added that it was imperative that communities erect structures that speak to climate change risks.
She said the gradual phasing out of coal was supposed to be planned on too as the country ponders on alternative sources of energy.
The provincial secretaries underscored the need for government to harmonise its policies and legislation so that there was no conflict of interest and duplication. They also called on the capacitation of traditional leadership and a national coordinator approach in dealing with climate change.
