Vusumuzi Dube
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe has been urged to prioritise and understand climate change in order to safeguard the environment and avert the devastating effects of these changes.
This was highlighted by the United Nations in Zimbabwe on the occasion of the World Humanitarian Day on Thursday. The 2021 WHD, with a hashtag #TheHumanRace campaign, is a clarion call against the climate crisis clock.
“Like most countries on the planet, Zimbabwe has experienced the harmful impact of climate shocks including consecutive severe droughts, floods and an increased occurrence of cyclones such as Idai in 2019. The impacts are felt first and foremost through water, impacting basic human rights and livelihoods. In 2019, some 270,000 people’s access to safe water and sanitation were negatively impacted by Cyclone Idai while drought put an additional 775,000 people’s water and sanitation at risk,” they noted.
The United Nations said the impact on Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector which is vulnerable to climate change has been significant.
“Agricultural production remains largely rain-fed and dominated by a single crop, maize. Crop and livestock production represent more than half of the total income earned by rural households. Women are disproportionately affected by climatic shocks as they constitute 61 percent of the farmers and provide 70 percent of the labor – mostly unpaid family workers.
The 2021 World Humanitarian Day is dedicated to highlighting the human cost of the climate crisis while noting that the climate crisis doesn’t affect everyone equally. They further said without adopting rapid climate informed development programmes, the commitment made by 193 UN Member States to attain the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will not materialize.
“Safeguarding food security and ending hunger are therefore fundamental priorities in Zimbabwe. So too, is the active engagement of the youth to lead the way through green- innovation and green-creation. Building resilience in the agricultural sector through strengthening the linkages between humanitarian as well as development responses remains critical.
“Foreign direct investment as well as domestic private finance and investment are important sources of climate finance. A mix of public and private sources of finance will be needed to implement the climate adaptation and mitigation measures outlined in the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution,” they said.
The United Nations in Zimbabwe has supported initiatives and projects to respond to climate change, provide basic services and cushion livelihoods. More specifically, the United Nations has assisted 1.1 million people in 23 districts prone to recurrent natural disasters with various resilience building projects including in climate smart agriculture and business.
They have also assisted approximately 138,255 people in eight cyclone-prone districts to put climate risk management plans in place and bolster environmental protection, including to protect safe drinking water.
They also assisted small-scale farmers to diversify away from maize and to cultivate diverse and drought resistant crops such as sorghum, sweet potatoes, groundnuts and beans.
Diversifying crop production helps to strengthen capacity and ensure environmental protection through maintenance of soil nutrients has also been done.
In addition, farmers have been supported to adopt climate smart agriculture including drip irrigation to optimize usage of limited water resources, and weather information systems for collecting data and predicting weather patterns.
They have also supported the development and roll out of key policies such as: the forthcoming National Adaptation Plan, National Environmental Policy and National Climate Policy in order to strengthen the enabling policy environment in Zimbabwe and to review the country’s progress on its commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
@NyembeziMu
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu