The Yobe State Government has partnered with Plan International Nigeria to push for a more coordinated approach to climate change financing in the state.
The partnership took off with a two-day policy dialogue and budget advocacy workshop which opened on Monday in Damaturu.
The workshop was organised under the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance (ZCRA), project with support from the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency (YOSEMA).
According to the organisers, the engagement is aimed at tackling the growing threat of climate change and disasters by strengthening financing for climate resilience and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into the state’s planning and budget system.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Programme Officer of Plan International Nigeria under the ZCRA project, Mathew Aliyu, said the dialogue was organised to review current policies against available evidence.
He said the session would help identify gaps in existing policies, align government actions with realities on the ground and design workable strategies for building resilience.
Aliyu said he was hopeful that at the end of the engagement, participants would make concrete commitments towards promoting climate resilience, especially through enhanced synergy among MDAs.
“The training is bringing together officials from government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, and other non-governmental actors to build their capacity on how to access climate finance and to ensure transparent and accountable budgetary provision for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction”, he said.
In his remarks, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics and facilitator of the programme, Al-Sheik Mustapha, said the workshop centred on financing for climate change and examined different models for funding climate-related interventions, including disaster risk management and reduction.
He said the workshop is expected to produce a more harmonised and holistic approach to climate change financing in Yobe State.
“It is also expected that by the end of the dialogue, participants would have agreed on stronger institutional commitments, come up with clear policy recommendations, and strengthened coordination among agencies to ensure climate resilience and disaster risk reduction are properly captured in government planning and budgeting”, he stated.