By Amin Kef Sesay
Prof. Foday Jaward, the Minister of Environment, has said over and over that Climate Change is real further highlighting how it is currently affecting Sierra Leone’s ecosystem services. In that regard, he therefore called for strong and immediate actions to be taken for Sierra Leone resilience on Climate Change adaptation.
The Minister made that disclosure during his keynote address at a validation workshop on “Initial National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for Sierra Leone” which attracted different stakeholders including Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Paramount Chiefs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The validation workshop was organized at the Hill Valley Hotel, Signal Hill in Freetown.
Delivering his keynote address, he continued that Climate Change is the most environmental challenge of this generation and emphasized that a suitable solution is needed to address it now. He noted that Climate Change could be mitigated when there is collective effort among relevant Stakeholders to improve on security, prosperity for a better future for all rather than resorting to procrastination. He maintained that Climate Change poses a significant threat to Sierra Leone due to erratic rain fall, powerful storms, wild fire, flooding and heat waves. He therefore took cognizance of the mudslide that occurred on August 14th, 2017 at Mortemeh.
He took into consideration the precarious position of Sierra Leone being the third most vulnerable country to Climate Change but he further clarified that with Government’s commitment to mitigation measures, the country is no longer considered in that precarious position. He added that Government is committed in environmental protection and Climate Change adaptation which according to him is evident through the formation of the Climate Change Secretariat within the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). He further cited the establishment of his Ministry and its supervising Agencies by H E President Bio with the key aim of protecting the environment. He affirmed that there is need for collective measures to mitigate these perennial challenges.
Citing the formulation of the Initial National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for Sierra Leone, he intimated that several consultations were done with key relevant Stakeholders including Paramount Chiefs, CSOs, Council Chairmen, to name but a few in 2018. He disclosed that a gap framework was developed the following year in 2019, which successfully provided an insight for the formulation and implementation of the NAP. He affirmed that in 2020, EPA had an inception meeting with the above relevant Stakeholders to further discuss the development of the NAP which was supported by UNDP. He said a draft was developed within that same year which according to him has necessitated the validation process which brought together different Stakeholders from all works of life.
He assured that the NAP process would help Sierra Leone to identify key adaptation issues, gaps, priorities and resource requirements for more effective planning, implementation and monitoring of adaptation to support the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Climate Agreement. He continued that NAP should focus on reducing disaster risks and adapting to Climate Change. “The Initial NAP is to reduce Sierra Leone’s vulnerability to Climate Change by 2030, increase risk awareness, improvement in roads compliance, increase institutional capacity and integration approach to adaptation, develop policies and programs across all sectors”, he stated.
He concluded that during the process of developing the NAP, five key priorities were identified which he said are critical for Sierra Leone’s resilience on Climate Change adaptation. He commended UNDP for being supportive to Sierra Leone on developing the NAP.
