News / National
Zim lacks capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change
21 Mar 2012 at 08:01hrs | Views
HARARE -- Zimbabwe lacks the technical expertise and institutional capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change, studies have revealed.
Environment and Natural Resources Management Ministry Permanent Secretary Florence Nhekairo announced the findings of the studies at a function here Tuesday to commission a joint programme to intensify the fight against the adverse effects of climate change.
Nhekairo said a recent study which the ministry carried out showed that climate change remained the biggest challenge to the country as it was threatening food security and economic growth.
"The study reveals that the country has weak inter-and intra-sectoral co-ordination in climate change issues, limited capacity for climate change policy analysis and implementation and limited resources to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation programmes," she said.
"It also came out clearly that there is insufficient technical expertise in climate change information packaging and inadequate local specialised training facilities and programmes in climate change, among other weaknesses."
Zimbabwe is one of many Third World countries which have been severely affected by climate change as witnessed by droughts, floods and other weather vagaries which have rocked the country over the years.
Nhekairo said the joint programme, "Strengthening national capacity for climate change programme in Zimbabwe", involved several line ministries, United Nations agencies, donors, the private sector and civil society.
"The thrust of this joint programme will be mainstreaming climate change in national development plans and programmes and leveraging resources from global financing mechanisms as well as bilateral and multilateral donors," she said.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is funding the programme with seed money of US$600,000 for the next three years.
UNDP deputy country director Martin Faria e Maya said climate change reverses development gains.
"About 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas and are dependent on climate change sensitive livelihoods, such as rain-fed agriculture and livestock rearing," he said.
Maya added that a more co-ordinated national response was required to deal with climate change.
Environment and Natural Resources Management Ministry Permanent Secretary Florence Nhekairo announced the findings of the studies at a function here Tuesday to commission a joint programme to intensify the fight against the adverse effects of climate change.
Nhekairo said a recent study which the ministry carried out showed that climate change remained the biggest challenge to the country as it was threatening food security and economic growth.
"The study reveals that the country has weak inter-and intra-sectoral co-ordination in climate change issues, limited capacity for climate change policy analysis and implementation and limited resources to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation programmes," she said.
"It also came out clearly that there is insufficient technical expertise in climate change information packaging and inadequate local specialised training facilities and programmes in climate change, among other weaknesses."
Zimbabwe is one of many Third World countries which have been severely affected by climate change as witnessed by droughts, floods and other weather vagaries which have rocked the country over the years.
Nhekairo said the joint programme, "Strengthening national capacity for climate change programme in Zimbabwe", involved several line ministries, United Nations agencies, donors, the private sector and civil society.
"The thrust of this joint programme will be mainstreaming climate change in national development plans and programmes and leveraging resources from global financing mechanisms as well as bilateral and multilateral donors," she said.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is funding the programme with seed money of US$600,000 for the next three years.
UNDP deputy country director Martin Faria e Maya said climate change reverses development gains.
"About 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas and are dependent on climate change sensitive livelihoods, such as rain-fed agriculture and livestock rearing," he said.
Maya added that a more co-ordinated national response was required to deal with climate change.
Source - New Ziana
