The
East African Regional Youth Summit on Climate Change opens Friday, July
25, 2014 in Mwanza, Tanzania. The conference, organized by the East
African Community Students Union in collaboration with the Tanzania
Youth Vision Association, is being supported by the EAC Secretariat.
The
East African Regional Youth Summit is a platform that brings together
young people from different parts of East Africa to address various
challenges. The youth meet once every year to discuss issues such as the
EAC integration agenda, and how to take advantage of the opportunities
that it (integration) presents. The Mwanza conference will bring
together over 200 participants mostly from Secondary Schools and
Institutions of Higher Learning.
This
year, the youth are focusing on climate change. Climate change is
already wrecking lives in Africa. Changing weather patterns and extreme
weather events, such as floods or droughts, have had debilitating
consequences on the regional agricultural production. These changes have
led to unreliable farming seasons. A December 2009 estimate put the
number of people facing starvation across East Africa at 23 million as a
result of successive failed rainy seasons.
With support from the European Union, United
Kingdom Department for International Development and the Government of
Norway, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the
East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) are implementing a joint initiative to address climate
change in the three Regional Economic Communities.
In
the COMESA-EAC-SADC, climate change effects include increased frequency
of extreme weather events, flooding, storms, and droughts, which has
affected the region’s food production and its progress towards poverty
reduction. Climate change may also spark conflict between and within
nations as resources become scarcer and disasters destroy livelihoods.
In
order to develop a unified African position on Climate Change, the
programme is engaging key stake holders such as farmer organizations,
women, youth and children to participate in climate change
decision-making processes, strategies and interventions. Thus this
three-day Youth Summit on Climate Change is a great platform to engage
young people to build regional and continental consensus for the African
Climate Solution.