News:
April 11, 2019
Parliamentarians in a resolution voted overwhelmingly in Qatar Doha at the end of their 140th Inter-Parliamentary-Union (IPU) Assembly calling for urgent action to support Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in the aftermath of cyclone Idai.
The resolution was submitted by the Netherlands calling for an urgent resolution to support the three African countries.
IPU emergency resolution called on all Parliamentarians to contribute to flash appeals by the UN for the three countries. And asked the world body, to focus on the most vulnerable people stranded without clean water, food especially women, children and the elderly.
And further urged, countries in a resolution to take more action on climate change to meet the goals of the Paris agreement by investing in climate-resilient programmes for the most vulnerable and supporting affected countries in developing resilience mechanisms and disaster risk reduction.
In 2018, at the 139th Assembly of the IPU, members voted on an emergency resolution put forward by a group of Small Island Developing States, demanding immediate action on climate change.
The IPU has been working with Parliaments to help them implement the Paris Agreement and find ways of mitigating the effects of climate change.
At a panel discussion at the Assembly, Parliamentarians also evaluated polices to reduce energy, poverty by mobilizing more investment in renewable energies, and saw the launch of the new IPU-UN environment publication – “shades of green: an introduction to the green economy for Parliamentarians”.
The cyclone was one of the worst tropical cyclones on record bringing torrential rains and high winds to Southern Africa; causing widespread flooding and landslides, and leaving a trail of devastation in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
It is estimated that well over seven hundred people died, one thousand five hundred were injured while well over ten thousand people were displaced.
Effects of the cyclone is likely to have exacerbated by environmental degradation, such as deforestation, cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique on the night of 14-15 March 2019, the day the One Planet conference began in Nairobi.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com Qatar/Doha