UNICEF Zimbabwe launches campaign on children and climate change

By Staff Reporter

UNICEF Zimbabwe has launched a communication campaign which seeks to involve children’s participation in climate change issues which are increasingly affecting them.

The campaign also comes at a time when Zimbabwe is enduring an El-Nino induced drought.

“The Climate Change Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis. Climate change is impacting the lives of children worldwide, also in Zimbabwe.

“It creates scarcity in access to safe water and food, impacts on the health of children, increases children’s vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, and jeopardises their well-being, even threatening their survival,” said Unicef Zimbabwe. “Everywhere children are increasingly exposed to climate or environmental hazards, such as flooding, drought, heatwaves, cyclones, and air pollution.

As these extreme weather events increase in frequency and ferocity, they threaten children’s lives, jeopardise children’s access to healthy food they need for their development and destroy infrastructure critical to their well-being such as schools, health care facilities and children’s playgrounds.”

UNICEF Zimbabwe also said climate impacts are affecting the most vulnerable children which has added further risk to their rights while reducing their access to basic services.

“The Climate Change Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis. Climate change is impacting the lives of children worldwide, also in Zimbabwe. It creates scarcity in access to safe water and food, impacts on the health of children, increases children’s vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, and jeopardises their well-being, even threatening their survival,” said the organization.

While children are the least responsible for climate change, UNICEF Zimbabwe said, children suffer the biggest brunt of climate change.

“Still children are largely missing from the climate dialogue,” said UNICEF Zimbabwe.

UNICEF Zimbabwe noted that Zimbabwean children were ranked as at a high risk of climate change impacts such as droughts and tropical cyclones.

“Zimbabwe too is impacted. Climate change is causing frequent occurrences and increasing severity of floods, tropical cyclones, droughts, and heatwaves. The Country is ranked high risk in the 2021 UNICEF Children’s Climate Risk Index,” said UNICEF Zimbabwe.

Among other issues UNICEF Zimbabwe want addressed are an increase in resource allocation towards children and climate change.

“UNICEF today launches a communication campaign to raise awareness on the impact of climate change on children; put children at the centre of the climate change debate; and to make the climate budget child focused.

“Today, only 2.4 % of Multilateral Climate Funds globally is set aside for children and young people. There is a need for more funds allocated directly to interventions that benefit children,” said UNICEF Zimbabwe.

Unicef Zimbabwe has dedicated their website for this issue.

“UNICEF’s website www.unicef.org/zimbabwe will be dedicated to the campaign on climate, with studies, research and stories. The campaign will centre around children by providing them with a platform for to share their views and make calls for more child centered climate funding and will run a petition campaign for everyone to join,” said UNICEF Zimbabwe.

Child centered climate change policies were called for among other things.

“To deal with the challenges of climate change, energy and environment UNICEF calls for urgent action on four fronts:

  • Put children at the centre of climate change policies, strategies, plans and budgets and make them child sensitive.
  • Empower children and young people to be environmental stewards and climate change agents, allowing them to realise their potential with full participation.
  • Enable children’s participation in the climate agenda, critical to ensure the future is fit for today’s children and today’s children are fit for the future.
  • Provide climate resilience services in health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, education and protection, so children can survive, develop and thrive,” said UNICEF Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe, UNICEF works with Government and partners to ensure children are an essential part of climate change strategies and disaster response plans.

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