Ahead of this year’s Conference of Parties (COP29) meeting to be held at Baku in Azerbaijan from 11th -22nd November, Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC) has called for a new, collective and quantified approach on climate change financing that reflects the needs on the ground.
CISONECC National Coordinator Julius Ng’oma made the sentiments at a Pre-COP29 engagement in Mponela which reflected on COP 28, children and youth priorities, achievements and gaps.
He observed that adaptation needs have increased not only in Malawi but Africa and other developing countries stressing on the need for stakeholders to come up with very extensive and elaborate processes on how to determine and view needs on the ground.
N’goma stated that at the end of the day, the objective is to project the true picture of the needs of the communities affected by the impact of climate change.
“And as we’re also going for other processes at the COP29, we should also be able to come up with new collective and quantified goals on climate finance that reflects the realities of the needs in developing countries and particularly in Malawi.
“So this calls for us as a country to get organized; let’s see how best we want to quantify our needs and even project them in a way that should reflect our realities and as we’re advocating for more financing at international level, then that should actually correlate with the needs that we have on the ground”
He acknowledged that Malawi has not done enough in youth involvement noting that over the years, there has been a growing change in terms of advocacy pertaining to children and youth inclusion on environmental issues and climate change negotiations.
“Last year we saw government delegation also featuring children and youth. Here, we’re actually trying to advocate for more inclusion of the youth and children and other marginalized groups into the COP related delegation so that we’re able to allow the youths themselves voice out what are their concerns in terms of climate change; how they’re being impacted, what they want to see in the outcomes of the different Conference of Parties that governs how we want to manage climate change globally”
Environmental Inspector in the Environmental Affairs Department Golivati Gomani, stressed on the need to have one voice and inclusivity in preparation for this year’s Summit to effectively implement outcomes from the gathering.
“So if we don’t capture the issues from the various stakeholders, then we’ll not go there to talk the issues that is talking about inclusivity; so this workshop is quite important for us to solicit inputs especially from the civil society, the youth.
“So it will be ideal to have ideas coming from the youths themselves so that it feeds into the position for the country”
Gomani hailed the demand driven approach taken meaning the final position developed will really reflect on the issues that are being submitted from the groupings.
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