Nasiru Yusuf Ibrahim
Kano State Watershed, Erosion and Climate Change Management Agency in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Partnership for Agile Governance and Climate Engagement (PACE) has conducted a one day meeting to validate Kano State’s Climate Change Policy.
KANO FOCUS reports that the exercise held on Thursday in Kano was attended by several stakeholders from different sectors including Government ministries, departments, and agencies as well as academics, Non Governmental Organisations NGOs, Civil Society and media.
Cross section of participants
Speaking at the occasion, the Commissioner of Environment, Alhaji Nasiru Sule Garo, highlighted the efforts of the Kano state government to address the challenges of climate change in the state.
He commended development partners, academics, civil society organisations and all relevant stakeholders for their contributions, pledging that their inputs will not be taken for granted.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of Kano State Watershed, Erosion and Climate Change Management Agency Dr Muhammad S. Khalid, recalled that the engagement was started in February 2024, where various inputs were collected from different stakeholders on climate change policy.
Dr Muhammad S. Khalid
He said “We started in February 2024, when we had our first stakeholder engagement. We invited various sectors, both government and non-governmental-organisations as well as civil society and academics to develop climate change policy for Kano state.
“In July 2024, we gathered again at Tahir Guests Palace, where we reviewed the first draft and added more inputs. It was a technical session, and we reviewed the document.
“Last week, we gathered at Dutse, Jigawa state, to review the second draft of the climate change policy and today, 7th of November, 2024, to validate the policy and later, present it to the executive governor of Kano state, Engr Abba Kabir Yusuf.
Also speaking the state team of Partnership for Agile Governance and Climate Engagement (PACE), a UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office funded programme Malam Auwalu Hamza, suggested that the validation stage would collect information, advice and other various components of data that would strengthen the policy document.
Malam Auwalu Hamza
In her remarks Stella Terver, UNICEF WASH Programme Officer, Kano Field Office, reiterated the commitment of the UN agency to partner with the Kano government in tackling the impact of climate change in Kano.
Stella Terver
She said, “A few weeks ago, we supported the Kano State Government in the finalization of climate change policy, and one of the outcomes during the finalization is that there should be a validation of the reviewed version.
“All the inputs made by general experts during the finalization would be incorporated so that the state will have a global and standardised policy in place that will help them in assessing global climate change,” she added.
Cross section of participants
She assured the general public and good people of Kano State that the validation and issues of tackling climate change would bring a lot of positive impact to the people of Kano.
KANO FOCUS recalled that the initial stakeholders’ engagement was conducted on February 2024 with support from Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL).
