Fiji negotiators have successfully concluded a new work programme in Doha, Qatar for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that will address education, training and awareness raising.
The eight-year work programme, referred to as Article 6 of the Convention, runs parallel with recommendations from the inaugural National Summit for Building Resilience to Climate Change, held in Labasa in October plus the national climate change policy.
Article 6 of the convention enables parties to carry out their commitments under the Convention by developing and implementing education, public awareness programmes and public access to information on climate change effects and development.
Fiji closely negotiated the new work programme which now reaffirms the “importance of taking into account gender aspects and the need to promote the effective engagement of children, youth, the elderly, women, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, local communities …”.
The summit outcomes identified a gap in the need for climate change training and education be targeted and tailored for all levels of society (urban and rural, literate and illiterate) including people with disabilities. Fiji’s Climate Change policy has gender as one of its eight pillars. Another crucial issue identified from the Labasa summit was the need to develop local language communication of climate change issues to provide awareness to rural communities.
The new programme insists on government to foster the participation of all stakeholders in its implementation report on their activities, in particular, the active participation of youth, women, civil society organizations and the media. It also aims to include climate change in school curricula at all levels and across disciplines, and to develop materials, and promote teacher-training focused on climate change at the regional and international levels where appropriate.
It also recognises that a goal of education is to promote changes in lifestyles, attitudes and behaviour needed to foster sustainable development and to prepare children, young people, women, persons with disabilities and grass-root communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The work programme also calls on government to promote public participation in addressing climate change and its effects and in developing adequate responses, by facilitating feedback, debate and partnership in climate change activities and in governance, noting the important role that social media platforms and strategies can play in this context.
For financing of the in-country work, the Global Environment Facility has been requested to continue to provide financial resources, in particular in African countries, the least developed countries and Small Island developing States.
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