CLIMATE CRISIS EFFECTS ON CHILDREN SHOULD BE TACKLED

The combined threat of climate emergency and inequality is eroding children’s rights in Africa. Incidents of child marriage and school dropouts are on the rise as families struggle to cope with the loss of livelihoods due to droughts, floods and storms. 

 

Prolonged conflicts, droughts and the worst locust swarms in 70 years have led to a food and nutrition crisis on the African continent which is taking a life every 48 seconds in the Horn of Africa alone. Extreme weather events such as devastating floods are displacing thousands of children from their homes and exposing them to violence, abuse, and exploitation. In the central Sahel in particular, food insecurity has become severely acute because of the interconnected crises of poverty, climate change and conflict. 

 

Addressing these pressing issues requires a multi-faceted effort involving both state and non-state actors. It is imperative to include children in designing innovative, gender-responsive, and sustainable development strategies and programs, placing girls and young people at the center. 

 

As the world gathers for the Africa Climate Summit, let us prioritize climate-led initiatives to comprehensively address the immediate needs of children, especially girls, and vulnerable groups, to avert the risk of widespread starvation in Africa. 

 

Children have been having discussions for the past two days on climate change, how it’s afecting them and called for an Africa that is fit for them. It is great that children are beginning to get spaces participate on this critical matter. These children are climate justice champions. Our children have a right to breathe clean air, free from dangerous pollutants such as fossil fuels. They have the right to education, necessitating interventions like critical school meal programs and psychosocial support. Increased investment in gender- responsive, child-sensitive, and locally led resilience and climate change adaptation initiatives will create an environment where our children and their descendants can thrive. 

Children most affected by economic inequality and discrimination are the hardest hit by the impacts of climate hazards, but their rights are often neglected, and their voices often go unheard. Without concrete and urgent action, these children will be pushed further into poverty as the frequency and intensity of slow-onset and sudden climate-related disasters increase in the future. 

 

It also presents rich insights and ideas for addressing the combined climate and inequality crisis that 1,293 children in 9 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa shared with us as part of a global listening exercise. This process confirmed that children across Africa are witnessing the impacts of the crisis on a daily basis. They are calling on leaders in their communities, countries and globally to take urgent action. 

 

Children participating in the dialogues put particular emphasis on reducing deforestation and planting trees. They also stressed the importance of creating decent, sustainable livelihoods so that lower-income households would not be driven to take up environmentally harmful practices. 

 

The Joining Forces For All Children in Kenya agencies (ChildFund Alliance, Plan International, Save the Children International, SOS Children’s Villages International, Terre des Hommes International Federation and World Vision International) acknowledges the increasing investments being made by the National and County Governments on programs and projects that contribute to the progressive realization of the rights of all Children in Kenya. 

 

Reasonably, there has been improvement in the welfare and well-being of children across various parts of the Country. Engagement with children, consulting with them, listening to them and providing feedback to them is one of the focus areas for the Joining Forces For All children in Kenya as we advance the progressive realization of the rights of children.