SADC Parliamentary Forum focuses on climate change response

Speakers and presiding officers from Parliaments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are grappling with how to plan and budget for climate change.

At a symposium under way in Durban, they are focusing in particular on the impact of weather-related disasters on women and the youth.

Vice President of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Sylvia Izaks, said parliaments can no longer continue to pass budgets that don’t make provision for climate financing.

Secretary to Parliament Xolile George said the theme of this 58th Plenary Assembly of the SADC Parliamentary Forum has been chosen in recognition of the disproportionate impact climate change is having on women and youth in the region.

They are the ones who are largely small subsistence farmers, and in times of drought and disaster have to travel long distances in search of water and wood.

George says MPs need to reflect on how legislation, oversight and policy can safeguard the region.

"Many young people in the region aspire for livelihoods in agriculture, yet climate vulnerability makes this sector increasingly unreliable, leading to underemployment and disillusionment."

As the plenary meets in a province prone to floods and storms, Izaks said climate change is fast becoming the new normal.

"The question this symposium must respond to is not if we should act but whether we have the courage to wield our unique parliamentary powers with the urgency this crisis demands."

Parliamentarians have been receiving presentations from disaster and climate experts on the impact this is having on livelihoods in the region.