Online Reporter
Diana Nherera
THE City of Harare has started working on its environment and climate policy after a council resolution and getting partners who will provide funding on board.
The funding partners are the Combined Harare Residents Association and Dialogue on Shelter in Zimbabwe.
In his presentation on developing the environment and climate policy for the City of Harare at the Birdlife Zimbabwe technical workshop on ecosystem management held at a local hotel yesterday, City of Harare’s head of the environment management unit, Mr
Lisben Chipfunde, said the city started by using the bottom-up approach where it went to the wards and districts asking for people’s views on what they want incorporated into the policy.
“Then after those consultations, we went higher up where we called other local authorities surrounding Harare also to hear what they want included in the policy because they are also affected by what happens in Harare,” said Mr Chipfunde.
“We then also engaged residents, especially those who are staying in areas that are not registered, such as Dzivarasekwa Extension, areas in the southern incorporated areas like Stoneridge, Churu Farm, and we also got views from them on what they wanted.
“We then called in the institutions of higher learning ie University of Zimbabwe, Midlands State University and Chinhoyi University of Technology.
“We also called in Government institutions, Ministries, to also put their input. But ideally we were saying while we have a policy on environment and climate at the national level, we needed to reduce this to the local level or sub-national level where things happen.”
Mr Chipfunde said the city then came up with 18 themes that it is working on with a technical team to put together the policy.
He said that after the policy has been put in place, they will then advertise.
“The document will be found, I think, on the website and at all district offices in Harare,” said Mr Chipfunde.
“So that will be the final point where we will get information, particularly from those that we would have missed or even those we would have consulted before and they think of other things.
“After that, we then write a report to the council and once approved, we will send this to the Government through our provincial office, our Environmental Management Agency and the Ministry of Environment, including our own parent ministry.”
