Africa-Press – Namibia. KNOWLEDGE and resilience will be needed to mitigate the increasingly negative effects of climate change which has already severely impacted the lives of many Namibians.
In response to climate change, the Namib Research Institute situated at Gobabeb in the Namib-Naukluft Park launched a Climate Action for Millennials Programme (CAMP) that is aimed at equipping young Namibian graduates with the knowledge required to address current and future challenges from a deeper level of scientific understanding.
According to Gillian Maggs-Kölling, the Executive Director the Namib Research Institute, the programme aims to create climate thought leaders which will eventually become advocates of change and inspire them to take meaningful and immediate action.
The research institute recently presented the second iteration of CAMP, specifically addressing climate change impacts on food security, agriculture and the availability of fresh water.
Maggs-Kölling indicated that the programme is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and executed in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT). She said that only 13 participants from across Namibia were selected from a pool of more than 150 recent graduates.
“The programme entailed an intensive two weeks of specialist presentations, activities, discussions and skills development incorporated contributions from experts from University of Namibia, the Namibia University of Science and Technology, University of Witwatersrand, North-West University, Environmental Investment Fund, WWF-Namibia, NamWater, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, the Namibia Meteorological Services, the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management, amongst others. The external information supplemented and augmented Gobabeb’s in-house expertise,” she said.
Because the premise of this particular training programme is effective climate change responses it needs to be evidence-based and participants were required to processed and interpreted Namibian weather data from around the country and to create posters with relevant local context as outreach materials.
“The material they created will be used to spread knowledge and awareness to a secondary group of learners in their home areas throughout the country in the coming months to improve public understanding of these important issues,” she said.
Maggs-Kölling expressed hope that the knowledge gained by the selected students will eventually echo across Namibia and contribute to building resilience against the impact of climate change and also spark action to help mitigate the phenomenon.
