Southern Africa: Pushing the envelope for an Addendum on Gender and Climate Change

Gender activists issued a strong call for an Addendum on Gender and Climate Change to Heads of States of Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Maputo, Mozambique on Saturday this week.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group predicts that Africa’s warming trend will be 1.5 times more than the global trend and that Southern Africa will be about 3-4 degrees warmer by the close of the century. Already, Southern Africa has been experiencing a warming trend over the past few decades.

In Botswana, drastic shifts in climate patterns and seasons has continuously manifested in prolonged dry spells and delayed rainfall in Botswana. At the end of July 2012 the Government of Botswana declared the year 2012/2013 a partial drought year. Mozambique is already one of the Southern African countries most affected by natural disasters, and this is likely to be increased by climate change. Zambia is experiencing increased droughts and floods, and other knock-on effects: ‘social, economic and environmental problems, such as increased poverty and deforestation due to charcoal burning’. Click here to read more