EAC PARLIAMENT TO START FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE

East African Community, Arusha, Tanzania, March 31, 2015:  The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has agreed to form a regional Parliamentary Forum on Climate Change.

The proposal was made during a policy dialogue on Climate Change and Gender for members of EALA to identify the role of parliamentarians in implementation of gender sensitive climate change policies.

The dialogue held on 27th and 28th March, 2015 in Bujumbura, Burundi, was organized by the EAC Secretariat in partnership with the EALA Women Forum. It was also attended by the EALA Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources and the General Purpose Committee.

“We need to establish a parliamentary forum on Climate Change for EALA so that it can feed into the global parliamentary forum and also provide leadership in the regional framework on climate change,” said Hon. Abubakar Zein. The resolution on this proposal will be passed during the next EALA sitting in May.

The impact of Climate Change is most severe for the world’s poor and marginalized communities who often live in stressed environments and have fewer means for coping.  Women are especially vulnerable because of their limited access, control and ownership over resources, unequal participation in decision and policy-making, lower incomes and levels of formal education and high workloads.

As such climate change impacts men and women in different ways and interventions aimed at addressing climate change impacts must include a gender perspective.

Hon. Valerie Nyirahabineza, the leader, EALA Women Forum, stressed that Africa is most vulnerable to climate change and noted that the region’s communities and governments are sometimes constrained to handle challenges of climate change. “Women play a critical role in food and nutrition security and are also responsible for growing, buying, selling, and cooking the food.

Majority of food produced in developing countries is by women, yet only 2% of land is owned by women,” she said. She added that there was need for the legislators to address the underlying causes of gender inequality such as unequal land rights and land tenure through legislative reforms.

Hon. Dora Byamukama noted, “Unless women feel secure as users and owners of land, there will always be a problem of climate change.”

Hon. Kessy Nderakindo said that many people are acquiring things that they don’t need. “Human beings are not respecting the earth and we need to ask, what are the little things we can do to stop climate change?”Hon. Zein also said that the EAC Climate Change Fund be capitalized

“It is not acceptable to have an EAC Climate Change Fund that we have not put money into, we are only depending on development partners to do something.”  He added that it is critical to have seed money from Partner States to support climate change related concerns.

The parliamentarians agreed that   climate change be considered in the EAC Partner States budgeting process, and pledged to make individual contributions to the Fund. The Climate Change Fund was established in 2011.

Hon. Leonce Ndarubagiye decried the overdependence on Development Partners and called for home grown solutions to climate change.The EAC Secretariat, in partnership with the East African Development Bank, is in the process of applying to be a Regional Implementing Entity to the Climate Change Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund.         

The Members agreed to revive their pledge where each EALA Chapter is to plant 50,000 trees in their Partner States by 2017. The MPs also observed that East Africans need to revive their traditional knowledge that was sensitive to nature. “We need to look into traditional knowledge and revive what worked before that has been abandoned,” said Hon. Mike Sebalu.

They called on Partner States to promote environmental friendly practices such as the use of renewable energy like biogas and solar power, water harvesting, and irrigation. Hon. Mumbi Ng’aru urged national governments to reduce the cost of materials used in the construction of biogas units.

The Members urged for the finalization of the draft EAC Disaster Risk Reduction Bill noting its urgency and the need for administrative and coordination structures for timely response to climate change induced disasters in the region that are increasing in intensity and frequency.

The EALA members conveyed their sympathies to the government and the people of the United Republic of Tanzania for the climate related hailstorm in Kahama and flooding in Dar es Salaam in March which claimed lives and left many people displaced.