COP28: CSOs tasks FG on commitments to security, agric, health

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, on day two of the COP28 climate conference at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. More than 70,000 politicians, diplomats, campaigners, financiers and business leaders flew to Dubai to talk about arresting the world’s slide toward environmental catastrophe. (Photo AFP)

Coalition of women-led Civil Society Organisations, (CSOs), under the auspices of the Development Research and Projects Centre, (dRPC), is calling on the federal government to put in place inclusive and effective mechanism for the swift implementation of Nigeria’s resolutions made at the just concluded COP28.

The Women Economic Empowerment Coalition (WEE-COL) expressed concern about the need for a clear monitoring and evaluation performance indicators for line MDAs and high-level government stewardship around the intersectionality of climate action, the health, agriculture, resilient food systems, education and security sectors reforms.

In a statement issued in Abuja signed by the coalition’s coordinator, Mrs Ruth Agbor, who is also President of the Association of Women in Agriculture and Trades (AWITA), the group commended the Nigerian government for recognising the severe and disproportionate impacts of climate change on women’s health, their well-being and livelihoods.

They also applaud efforts of the government in signing the Declarations of the recently concluded COP28 in Dubai.

“The COP28 declaration on sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems and climate action, as well as the COP28 declaration on climate and health, presents a critical framework for addressing the intersectionality between climate action and women in sectors such as health, education, agriculture, and food security.

“Women’s civil society organisations are ready to play a vital role, contributing to the realisation of government’s COP 28 commitments at all levels.

“Women’s groups are prepared to share lived experiences about the impact of the climate crisis. They are indispensable to processes of formulation, implementation and evaluation of climate action policies and projects in key sectors such as health and agriculture.
“We are therefore calling on the Nigerian government and particularly the National Council on Climate Change, (NCCC),to actively engage and collaborate with women’s CSOs in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of climate action policies, programs and projects,’ Agbor said.

She adds that WEE-COL is urging Nigerians to join hands with the government to ensure that the policy and political value accrued from the just concluded COP28 is utilised to effectively increase the capacity of the populace, especially the vulnerable including women and girls as they to adapt to the climate crisis.
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