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Today is the International Day of Disaster and Risk Reduction. Here in Kenya, we have repeatedly suffered the effects of ravaging drought and famine. Due to climate change, Kenya has experienced delayed rains which have caused millions of Kenyans to experience hunger and starvation.
Every year the president has to flag off relief food to remote areas which were worst hit by the drought. Animals die yet are a source of living for the pastoralist communities in those areas. Children suffer malnutrition which raises their mortality rate while others have to drop out of school. Parents leave their children to go and find food which compromises the security of those children.
All these repeated grim cycles of disaster can be prevented if the government was more prepared to tackle the disaster. Instead of mitigating problems, the good old adage, prevention is better than cure comes to play.
If the government paid attention to climate change, then it would pool stakeholders together and channel funds to plant trees and join the rest of the world to reduce carbon emissions. In the upcoming COP 27, notable people are urging governments to focus on financing renewable energy and eco-friendly policies.
The World Bank just announced that it is preparing a trust fund for third-world countries to reduce carbon emissions, including decommissioning coal-fired power plants. The fund is called Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE). It will provide grants to developing countries as they deliver pre-agreed results in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This was announced by World Bank President David Malpass.
Kenya should take advantage of the upcoming fund and develop a long-term strategy while supplementing with other efforts. Other efforts could include, aggressive afforestation, boring of holes and connecting more households to the water grid to spur irrigation for both subsistence and commercial farming. This will effectively strengthen our efforts towards food security.
World Bank has not yet defined how much the SCALE fund is worth. Details will be released over time.
