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Enacy Mapakame-Business Reporter
The upcoming 27th Conference of the Parties (Cop 27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), will amplify women’s voices and predicament due to the negative impact of climate change and proffer climate action solutions.
This comes conversations around the ravaging impacts of climate change in developing countries continue gaining traction.
This comes as Egypt, the host for Cop 27, is working on an initiative specifically for women with the aim of addressing challenges they face especially in rural areas with regards food security, access to clean and safe water, energy as well as shelter, which have become topical as climate induced disasters damage infrastructure and source of livelihoods.
COP 27 will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from 7 to 8 November this year.
Egyptian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mahmoud Amer said the initiative would help identify ways of assisting women and children cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.
Without providing finer details on the initiative, Ambassador Amer acknowledged the disproportionate impacts of climate change.
He said women were among the worst affected by impacts of climate change and therefore vulnerable, creating scope for programmes that provide coping mechanisms.
As adverse weather patterns continue to affect agriculture production, women in Zimbabwe and other developing countries are battling food insecurity as most of them depend on subsistence farming to take care of families.
An estimated 86 percent of women in Zimbabwe depend on land for livelihood and food production for their families while rural women make the majority of smallholder farmers and are now prone to climate vulnerabilities.
“I am pleased to let you know that Egypt has come up with an initiative specifically for women to look at how they and children can be helped in mitigating against climate change,” he said responding to questions at the Road to COP 27 kick off meeting hosted by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Climate Change Working Group (ZCCWG) in Harare.
“It is important for us to do this because women are adversely affected by climate change. I will be giving you more information on this as we progress but ideally the initiative focuses on the predicament of women due to climate change and try to proffer solutions,” he said.
While African countries, Zimbabwe included, are among the least contributors to global emissions, their populations are at significantly higher risk of experiencing the negative effects of climate change because of their widespread reliance on the natural environment.
Women and children in particular have been identified as more vulnerable than men and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) projections indicate that about 90 million women in Africa will be food-starved by 2050 due to climate change effects.
Experts have argued the upcoming COP 27 is therefore a chance for African economies and the rest of the developed nations to push for more climate mitigation initiatives for the region.
Online Reporter