Civil society organizations and media men and women met on August 24 for a national workshop on “Dialogue and Alliance with Media Professionals on Climate Urgency in Preparation for COP29”. Baku, Azerbaijan “.
Educate and involve the media more in the management of climate change issues.
This was the aim of the national workshop organized on August 24, 2024 by consortium Inades Formation Cameroun, Mboscuda and AFSA, (in Douala), Cameroon.
The workshop was attended by working group members, selected media and additional members of the National Alliance for Climate Change.
The aim of the meeting was to raise awareness among participants and the public of the importance of integrating agroecology as an adaptation strategy into public policies relating to Climate Change (CC), notably the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) currently under review and the National Determined Contribution (NDC).
Family photo
With two months to go before the 29th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP29), to be held in Azerbaijan, it was important to educate and train media men and women in lexicons related to climate change and agroecology for more effective and objective communication.
In his speech, Raphaël MEIGNO, advocacy officer at Inades-formation Cameroun and also platform and network focal point for the Pôle de Connaissances de l’Agriculture Biologique et l’Agroécologie en Afrique Centrale (PCAC) project, spoke of the benefits for farmers of turning to the practice of agroecology and the fight against climate change.
“Agroecology is agriculture that respects the environment. It is also an agriculture that provides communities with resources for their subsistence to a sufficient, sustainable and healthy diet,” he said.
Talking about climate change, he explained that it is a situation that impacts all social strata.
“Climate change affects all segments of the population, and what we have in common with all the participants is that we work with grassroots communities, and these communities have a serious problem linked to climate change. Today, we’re talking about flooding problems, problems of land leaching and deforestation, which is having a very negative impact. Our struggle is to ensure that these two issues are taken into account in public policy”.
Creating a community network against climate change
One of the outcomes of the workshop was the sharing of the membership form for the climate change platform network.
“We want to set up a climate change platform network that will act as an interface between grassroots communities and decision-makers, to steer decisions towards these target communities. There are several multinationals working on climate change, but the effects are not reaching their communities”, Raphaël MEIGNO added.
The Inades Formation Cameroun, Mboscuda and AFSA consortium gave the men and women of the media the tools they needed to speak out for Cameroon and fight climate change and agro-ecology at their level.
This activity is in line with the prospect of structuring civil society actors working on climate issues to effectively address advocacy for better consideration of the concerns of the most disadvantaged populations in the face of the negative effects of climate change.
The workshop will also help to prepare for COP29, to be held in Azerbaijan from November 11 to 22, 2024.
Marguerite MOMHA, Inades-Formation Cameroun
