UN to discuss country’s drought situation

THE United Nations (UN) will discuss the country’s drought situation when it meets in Rome, Italy, next week.
According to the UN Special Envoy for El Nino and Climate Change ambassador Macharia Kamau, they hoped to characterise the challenge the world is facing with El Nino and try to use that as a leverage not only to mobilise ministers of agriculture all over the world to respond to the challenge.
Kamau gave this undertaking yesterday in Port Moresby during a meeting with various bilateral partners, NGOs, donors, churches, government agencies and stakeholders who are at the forefront in addressing the drought in the country.
He said his purpose in the country was to get a sense of the drought situation and the efforts of all partners involved and turn that around into a narrative that he could use internationally to try to raise resources towards supporting these efforts.
“That’s what we are essentially supposed to do,” Kamau said.
“The challenge for us is to characterise the challenges that have been faced by countries like PNG.
“This weather phenomena that we are talking about is here to stay.
“Their frequency will be much more frequent but their character and their impact is going to change overtime by virtue of the global climatic conditions but also by virtue of the fact that we’re responding to these issues differently.”
He said there were more ways in getting people to appreciate the challenge temporarily and also to make them aware of the need to respond institutionally apart from supplying food and water rations.
“It is to recognise that this is a chronic event that will be reoccurring time and again. We have to also invest in infrastructure that will be able to anticipate these challenges in the future,” Kamau said.
“How you help us characterise this situation is very important. Because the solutions won’t come from us, it will come from you.”