H.E. Ms Graça Machel – Chair, International Board of Trustees of ACPF
9th International Policy Conference on the African Child – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Good morning Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the African Child Policy Forum and my own behalf, I welcome you all to this first-ever international policy conference that deliberates on the impact of climate change on Africa’s children. We have dedicated the ninth edition of our international policy conference on the African child to this issue, acutely aware of the gravity and urgency of our continent’s situation.
The conference aims to put children in Africa at the centre of the global and African climate change discourse and agenda. But, more importantly, it aims to galvanize multi-level action to address the impact of climate change on Africa’s population and its children.
This conference comes at a critical time when Africa and indeed the whole world is getting prepared for the UN Climate Summit to be held in Cairo in November. This conference gives us a great opportunity to build an African position that will feed into the Cairo Summit on what must be done to mitigate the impact of climate change on Africa’s population, especially children.
Dear Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
For us Africans, the climate crisis has not only made us poorer and more fragile, but it has also become a threat to our very existence. It has left – and continues to leave – a trail of death and destruction, exposing our people, about 50% of whom are children, to untold misery and suffering:
- In addition to the child deaths that can be caused by natural disasters, including the disruption of healthcare services such as immunization, climate change has provided the fertile ground for diseases that are the primary causes of child morbidity and mortality, including vector-borne diseases, such as Malaria and Dengue, water-borne diseases such as Diarrhea and Cholera and air-borne diseases such as TB and Asthma.
- Climate change has also pushed millions of children into hunger: more than 60 million people, in just six countries, the majority of whom are children, were facing food crisis in 2020, with an increase of over 20 million from 2019.
- Internal displacement has become a recurring feature of the climate crisis: millions of Africans have already been displaced because of climate-related disasters. According to o the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2030, in just eight years’ time, close to 700 million people could be displaced due to climate change in Africa.
- Climate change has given fertile ground for conflicts and instability in various ways. Competition for scarce resources aggravated by climate change has resulted in conflicts that often form armed confrontations. Natural hazards and environmental stresses have disrupted stable intercommunity rapport and existing social and cultural systems, triggering or compounding conflict risks.
Distinguished Participants,
The litany of woes resulting from climate change can’t be exhausted. It suffices to say that the crisis is a formidable challenge that has the potential to reverse the gains Africa has achieved over the years. Indeed, for Africa, the climate crisis is a development impediment, a recipe for social crises and a catalyst for instability.
Africa’s children are not only paying a heavy price due to the climate crisis now, but they are likely to continue suffering from it well into the future. Children aged 5-14 today will reach their expected peak earnings period by 2045. That is when the worst economic effects will be felt – up to an 80 per cent decline in income growth (about 4 per cent per annum) compared to today. Therefore, today’s children are poised to inherit a poorer continent and likely to raise poorer families as adults 30-40 years from now.
This is the reason why we need to invest more in adaptation. But unfortunately, there is very limited interest among funding agencies in supporting adaptation in Africa. Currently, the financial gap between what is available and what is needed in Africa for meaningful adaptation stands at 80%. 65% of climate finance currently goes to mitigation, whereas adaptation only gets around 25%. For instance, in 2019, only $20.1 billion was spent on adaptation. This amounted to roughly one-quarter of climate finance, with the majority, over $50 billion, going on mitigation.
This is another manifestation of the prevailing climate change injustice, where the rich, western countries, despite being chiefly responsible, have taken lukewarm steps to address the crisis. There have been repeated calls for high-income countries to take responsibility for their carbon footprints and provide the necessary financial and technical support for low-income countries bearing the brunt of those footprints. Although Africa’s adaptation cost as a percentage of GDP is higher than in any other region of the world at around 1.3-1.4% of GDP, very little financial support has come forth to support its adaptation and mitigation efforts.
However, I am quick to add that the climate change predicament cannot be left to western countries and governments alone. We, as Africans, must also take the responsibility to be accountable to the people affected, including children. African governments must develop comprehensive, all-inclusive national adaptation plans and respect what they have agreed to contribute to the overall adaptation and mitigation budget needs. So far, only 13 countries in Africa have developed and published their NAPs and very few of these Plans mention children. Only three African countries funded measures to address climate risks within their investment priorities.
The climate crisis has conspired, along with the COVID-19 pandemic and rising food prices and poverty, to endanger Africa’s journey into being a safe, secure and enjoyable continent for its children. It is, therefore, critical that we all shoulder the responsibility of addressing the impact of the climate crisis. This is a catastrophe of planetary proportions, from which no one – old or young – man or woman- African or non-African is spared.
Action is needed on all fronts and by all of us. Complex problems call for complex solutions. Without oversimplifying the intricate nature of the climate crisis and its impact on children in Africa, we suggest that concerted, multilayered action be taken, among others, to:
- Create general climate awareness to prevent further damage to the environment, including through the school curricula
- Develop national climate adaption and mitigation plans that take children’s needs into full account and ensure their implementation through adequate funding and political commitment
- Ensure greater climate justice towards addressing the needs of the poorest majority who suffer the consequences of a climate crisis is driven by the richest one per cent of the population.
The upcoming Summit on Climate Change, to be held in Cairo, is a huge opportunity for us to make our voices heard, call for global climate justice and to renew our own accountability to our citizens, notably children.
Excellencies, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
From driving child mortality and child hunger to exacerbating healthcare and educational deprivation, from exposing children to abuse and exploitation to ravaging countries’ economies, the climate crisis has proved to be an epitome of tragedies. It has become not only a present danger of considerable gravity and complexity facing Africa’s children but also a lifelong peril that haunts them into old age.
Ours is a race against time. Let’s act in unison and act fast!
I thank you!
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.