Despite having so many policies and international treaties relating to climate change, Malawi has been hit so hard by multiple climatic shocks from 2015 to-date.
Civil society network on climate change (CISONECC) Chairperson Gift Numeric observed that climate information services are not adequately shared to those who need them and that people are still stuck in their traditional knowledge.
He however pointed out that Civil society organizations (CSO’s are working with government departments and agencies to bridge these gaps.
Numeri noted that most of the technologies being introduced by Non-Governmental organisations and sometimes academicians trying to test things but haven’t been up-scaled.
He underscored the need for a national plan on the adoptive technologies on what needs to be done and key timelines towards the goals to be achieved in the short and long term.
The Board Chairperson further observed that sometimes when these are being tested, the adoption rate on the intended beneficiaries takes a bit of time.
“They don’t understand where this thing is coming from and it is important for us also to be able to understand the needs of a people of a particular area because one of the things that we’ve also seen in the process is that most of the technologies that we are advancing to our people cannot be able to fit anywhere.
“So you must have context where to say in the northern region what are the technologies that we need to promote, for example also in the central region. But what we have seen is that one size fits all being tried here and there in pockets and pockets and by the end of the day, adoption has also been very difficult.
“The people that are using these technologies they haven’t been part and parcel of developing or framing these technologies and it becomes very difficult for them to own the processes”
Numeri also faulted the belief in traditional knowledge and communities approach towards climate change issues, arguing science is something that should also be able to guide people’s activities on a daily basis.
He indicated that the impacts of climate change are not only affecting the farmers but other sectors such as education, agriculture and health among others.
“It’s important that we begin to also interrogate our own policies and identify gaps that are there. One of the things that we also see is that the implementation of these policies is not just a problem but financing, putting money together and resources to ensure that we implement these policies.
“What we see as a gap and we want to make sure that all the stakeholders that we’ve gathered in here be able to see what role can they do because implementation of policies is not just about government but is for every other stakeholder”
Hanke Ndau Department of Disaster Management Affairs Resilience officer agreed that climate change has negatively affected communities stressing on the need to move away from traditional approaches.
“We need a quick mindset change; people have to start adapting new technologies, new approaches to doing things; so this is even being reflected in government policies you can see with the MW2063 we’re already in the process of what we call the Malawi implementation plan the MIP 1.
“Sticking to the traditional way of doing things, this I think is a very important message for all Malawians out there that if we continue sticking to the traditional way of doing things, then by the time we react we find that the climate has changed too far and we cannot really go back”
Ndau pointed out that the impact of Cyclones Freddy and Idai were visible for all hence need to keep up to date with the information from the weather services and make quick decisions.
