Youths in the West Nile sub-region have been urged to engage in meaningful climate change and climate justice participation to help reverse the current trend of global climate change.
The appeal was made by Derick Pikisa, Executive Director of COLEIN AID, a Zombo District-based non-governmental organisation championing the project titled “Meaningful Youth Participation in Climate-Related Decision-Making Processes” across the West Nile sub-region.
“Youths should welcome this initiative. The project seeks to engage and involve young people so that they understand what climate change is and how it affects both today and tomorrow,” Pikisa said in an interview with this publication last week.
The two-year project is being implemented by the Youth Climate Council, the Green African Youth Organisation, and COLEIN AID, which is serving as the host organisation for northern Uganda.
According to the UNDP, climate justice means maximising inclusion, meaningful participation, and equality. It ensures that the most affected and vulnerable individuals and communities are treated as stakeholders and rights holders, allowing them to participate without discrimination in the decision-making and implementation of climate governance and policies.
This initiative comes in response to the fact that young people, in addition to being victims of climate injustice, are also the hope for a better tomorrow.
The project was piloted in four schools, including St. Aloysius College Nyapea, Warr Girls in Zombo, Muni University, and two other secondary schools in Arua.
Under the initiative, youths will be trained and involved in decision-making processes that can gradually promote environmentally friendly practices, such as planting more tree species, among other interventions.
Due to climate change, the world has seen an increase in women’s vulnerability due to gender norms and poverty, reducing their chances of survival.
Brenda Ayiorwoth, the organisation’s administrator and the women’s representative at the Youth Climate Council called on women to join the climate change campaign, emphasising that they are the most vulnerable group.
“We are the ones suffering the most due to climate change. We are the ones cooking, taking care of the men, and using resources like firewood. We are involved in a lot. As women, we should also do something,” Ayiorwoth explained, further encouraging fellow women to plant more trees to directly address the impacts of climate change.
Since climate change disproportionately affects children, young people, and women, decreasing their chances of survival, the organisation has deemed it necessary to engage and consult with students from selected schools across the region.
Pikisa revealed in an interview that they have already completed similar engagements with “youths in civil society and stakeholders across the West Nile region.”
Saviour Uyirwoth, a student at St. Aloysius College Nyapea, was impressed with the engagement and appealed for “more efforts to be channelled towards sensitisation and tree planting.”
Canwat Saviour Nelly, the agricultural officer and a teacher at St. Aloysius Nyapea College, commended the intervention and urged partners to encourage planting fast-growing varieties of trees, including fruit trees.
If left unchecked, heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and droughts will become increasingly frequent, impacting health by exposing people to burns, injuries, dangerous levels of air pollution, contaminated water, infectious diseases, and mental health conditions, among others.
Many environmental experts opine that well-designed adaptation policies should be activated to reduce climate-related impacts in all spheres of life.
COLEIN AID is currently the Northern Uganda hosting organisation for the Youth Climate Council, implementing meaningful youth engagement in climate-related decision-making processes in Uganda.
