Empowering Civil Society Organizations for Child Rights and Climate Justice

Civil society organizations from across Africa convened in a two-day training workshop in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss and exchange on matters related to child rights, gender, and human rights on climate justice.

The event which took place from 24^th to 25^th August organized by PACJA, brought together other representatives of Save the Children and the partners in the consortium with the aim of supporting the capacity of the organizations and sharing experiences to improve the outcome and sustainability of climate action advocacy and programming.

The training takes place at a time when climate change impacts are affecting human health without leaving behind food security, water security, and socioeconomic development aspects.

While children’s rights are less known and linked to climate action, there has been a need to build the capacity of Civil society organizations so that they understand the interlinkages between their work and climate justice agenda.

25 individuals from 15 diverse African groups exchanged ideas and experiences, fostering collaboration and their endeavors in advancing climate justice.

Mr. Charles Mwangi, the Head of Programmes and Research at PACJA, said that shared with participants the need to understand the nexus between Human Rights, gender, child rights, and climate change in order to address the issue from the roots. He said that PACJA has been mainstreaming child rights in its programming and processes for Climate justice.

Solomon Gezahegne; Regional Child Rights Governance Manager at Redbarnet said that in the fight against Climate change, children’s rights need to be at the Centre of planning processes.

“Children deserve a healthy environment as a basic right, but current decisions impact their future. Let’s acknowledge this connection and ensure a greener, safer tomorrow,” stressed Solomon.

 During the two days, participants had the opportunity to develop a platform for knowledge sharing specifically on climate change impacts, climate justice, climate change negotiations, Human rights and climate change, health and climate change, and Faith and Climate change.