BY LEULSEGED WORKU
Sources indicate that not less than 490 million children in sub-Saharan countries are at the risk of climate change and at least almost 11 million children across the continent face food insecurity due to extreme weather events including drought, floods and war.
To prevent and respond to the effects of climate change on African children, therefore, African leaders urgently need to step up their financial investment; and review their economic policies. By 2050, Africa’s population growth will triple and the continent will be home to one billion children and young people who, given right life chances, could power the continent’s social and economic renaissance. Unfortunately, they face a future of reduced employment, productivity and growth due to economic impacts of climate change.
Taking the seriousness of the matter into consideration, the 9th International Policy Conference (IPC) on the African Child held last Tuesday in Addis Ababa discussed the undesirable impacts of climate change on African children; putting Africa’s children at the center of the climate agenda and aiming to prevent and respond the effects of climate change on African children.
Speaking at the Conference, African Child Policy Forum Chair of Trustees Graca Machel said that, African children are victims of climate change from two directions. The first one comes from the floods, draughts, and food and water shortages. While their governments try to cope up with these problems, the investment that should be spent on children`s service will be diverted to alleviate the above problems.
As to her, African children and young people will bear the brunt of climate change in the coming decades, since the worst impacts are expected mostly in the second half of this century.
Whenever the issue of climate change is raised, it is only the economic side of the problem that will be pronounced most. There is a little concern or awareness it will bring to children and women. Climate change is having and will continue to have a devastating impact on water availability, food security, and the environment, she highlighted.
Women and Social Affairs Minister Ergogie Tesfaye on her part said that, the interconnectedness between children’s rights and climate change is understandable. Undoubtedly, children’s rights to life, the highest attainable standards of health, protection, education, and so much more are violated by the impacts of climate change.
According to her, annually, there are between 451,000 and 813,000 deaths from malaria in Africa out of which 67 percent are children. Extreme weather events damage schools; and if the schools are not destroyed, it is a common practice to use schools as shelters for persons that are displaced; which compels children not to attend their education temporarily.
Ethiopia is vulnerable to many of the effects of climate change, including increases in average temperature and changes in precipitation, which is threatening the health and livelihoods of its people and has the potential to reverse the economic progress that the country has made in recent years.
The country has been experiencing prolonged drought after three consecutive failed rainy seasons since late 2021 that have brought severe drought in nation’s lowland regions drying up water wells, killing livestock and crops and pushing hundreds of thousands of children and their families to the brink.
People living in these same areas have barely managed to recuperate from the severe drought in 2017 to witness again such harsh conditions, the first signs of which started appearing towards the end of 2020. The conditions continued to worsen with the successive failed seasons in 2021, Ergogie said.
The climate crisis has also exacerbated the already dire situation of child marriage in the country. Between January and April 2021 and the same period in 2022, child marriage has increased by an average of 119 percent across states worst hit by the drought such as Somali; Oromia; and southern parts of the country. Similarly, during this time, cases of FGM also have shown increments by 27 percent in the southern part of the country.
Apart from climate change, the current conflict in the country is hugely affecting the life of children and women in Ethiopia. The government of Ethiopia is working towards strengthening the shared values of the nations and nationalities of the country for mutual benefit and the peaceful coexistence of its citizens. On the other hand, politically motivated instigations and growing interference from internal and external actors at different times and in different forms are still challenging the country; resulting in displacements, economic hardship and putting protection of women and children at risk.
However, the government of Ethiopia is aware of these continuously persisting problems and is putting in place a national responsiveness political, social and economic system for the wellbeing of its citizens. The government is striving to alleviate those pitfalls of the national threat to bring about the socio-economic transformation of the country by implementing the country’s Homegrown Economic Reform Program that aims to facilitate the creation of decent jobs, sustain high-quality economic growth, and create fiscal space for increased public investment in infrastructure, human capital and institutional development. The policy blueprint, which seeks to unlock the country’s development potential, is designed to make Ethiopia an African icon of prosperity by the year 2030.
United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, Dr. Najat Maalla M`jid, said that, the already heavy burden of malnutrition and diseases among children in Africa is exacerbated by increasing draught, poverty, high food prices, displacement and insect outbreaks that are all related to extreme weather events.
Climate change has a negative impact on the survival rate, growth and mental health of children in Africa- and girls and young women are especially vulnerable. The majority of children live in families and communities that have little resilience to respond and adapt to climate-induced emergencies.
Extreme weather events and rising temperature lead to knock-on effects for African children such as increased poverty, child labor, severe malnutrition, lack of access to clean water, health and sanitation facilities, child marriage and school dropout.
The 9th International Policy Conference (IPC) on the African Child held Conference, organized to highlight the urgent need for financial investment and economic policies to prevent and respond to the effects of climate change on African continent, was attended by Ministers from different African countries, high level United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) officials, child rights experts and civil society organizations.
During the conference, practitioners, experts, policy makers and others from across Africa and beyond expressed their views and share their experiences on the issue.
The Ethiopian Herald September 15/2022
