Chronicle Editor
Vincent Gono
The Government has started consulting marginalised and vulnerable groups to ensure they are fully engaged in the resilience building interventions as it gears up efforts to deal with the effects of climate change.
Speaking at the national adaptation planning, monitoring, reviewing and reporting workshop in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Permanent Secretary, Mr Munesu Munodawafa said the impact of climate change could no longer be overemphasized with aspects of extreme weather events such as flooding and droughts on the increase in recent years.
He said rainfall seasons were increasingly becoming uncertain threatening livelihoods and economic performance, adding that Government was responding to this urgent need for climate action by facilitating for an enabling environment for climate change programming in the country.
“The impact of climate change may not be overemphasized with aspects of extreme weather event such as flooding and droughts on the increase in recent years. The situation is worsened by the relationship between poor rainfall and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) performance. This calls for urgent climate action.
“The Government has responded to this urgent need for climate action by facilitating for an enabling environment for climate change programming in the country. As the country develops its medium-term development strategy, it is taking concerted efforts to integrate climate change issues in the plans to ensure our development efforts are climate proofed against unprecedented climate change vagaries,” said Mr Munodawafa.
He added that there was a general consensus on the vulnerability of agriculture, human settlement, infrastructure, water, health, forest and biodiversity sectors to the impacts of climate change.
Such effects, he said, needed people to collectively agree on the country’s adaptation goal whilst also ensuring that it was aligned with the country vision of developing in a low carbon and climate resilient trajectory.
“It is therefore, imperative to consult widely ensuring that marginalised and vulnerable groups are engaged during the process of coming up with the resilience building interventions as provided for by this forum,” he said.
Bongani Ndlovu