Stakeholders at the Inception and Discovery Meeting for Climate Equity Project in Nigeria have underscored the amplification of personal experiences of various communities on the effects of climate change.
The meeting was organised in Ibadan on Monday by the meeting was organised by NetHope, Ushahidi, and the Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Network.
The event is entitled “Amplifying Community Voices of Climate Change in Nigeria”.
The Executive Director of YARN, Opeyemi Elujulo, stated that the event aimed to ensure that communities across Nigeria were represented in the data on climate change issues.
“This is to amplify the voices of those mostly affected by climate change.
“We have various stakeholders come together to co-create what climate solutions should look like and chart a way to ensure that their voices are well represented,” Elujulo said.
A representative of Ushahidi, Kenya, Joseph Kirai, said the stakeholders’ engagement was insightful as people expressed how climate change was affecting them.
“One of the issues that we’ve seen is that we have always been having satellite data collected, but we haven’t been having lived experience on climate change,” he said.
Kirai stated that the project would collate data of 5,000 community members in three states: Oyo, Osun and Ondo.
According to him, the data will be used to make informed decisions on climate change issues.
From NETHOPE, Aminat Adebayo stated that the project would add to the number of most vulnerable voices, such that tool kits could be developed for community adaptation to climate change.
She said that the data would be analysed for climate action plans that communities could act upon to improve solutions and develop resilience.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye, said that engagements were ongoing to sensitise farmers on how to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Olaleye, represented by Mrs Abimbola Agbaje of the Data Collection Department, said the government facilitated a training by NiMET in February on how farmers could adapt to climate change challenges.
According to the commissioner, there is a prediction of a 40-day drought in Oyo State from mid-July to August.
He added that farmers were advised to plant in phases to reduce losses due to climate change.
He, however, urged farmers to insure their business ventures with the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) so that they could bounce back after suffering any loss.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Ṣeun Ashamu, said the ministry would continue to work with other stakeholders to reduce the effects of climate change.
Represented by Mrs Ajibade Adepoju of the Pollution Department, the commissioner stated that the ministry had been engaging in various activities to create awareness and solutions to climate change issues.
He promised it would continue to do so.
