Abstract:
Climate change has the potential to impact negatively on almost all sectors of the
economy. Tanzania like other African countries has been experiencing impacts of
climate change which includes severe floods, frequent and prolonged droughts, sea
level rise, declining crop yields, loss of livestock, decreased water availability as well as
increase in vector and water-borne diseases.
In recognizing the devastating impacts of climate change, the Government has put in place a number of initiatives in order to address the challenges of climate change. Some of these initiatives include enactment of the Environmental Management Act, 2004; development of the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), 2007; MKUKUTA II; National Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (NASAP), 2009; and National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS), 2012. There are also various sectoral initiatives that aim at addressing the impacts of climate change and strengthen resilience of communities.
Despite these initiatives, the level of awareness and understanding of climate change issues among stakeholders is still very low at all levels.One of the major reasons for this is the absence of national climate change communication mechanism to enable effective communication of climate change knowledge.
This National Climate Change Communication Strategy is intended to enhance climate
change awareness in the society. It focuses on six thematic areas namely,general
knowledge on climate change, adaptation, mitigation, climate change research, gender
and financing. The Strategy provides a framework for generating and delivering key
climate change messages to targeted audiences within the context of the national
communication channels and procedure.
I therefore call upon all stakeholders at all levels in the country to use effectively this
Communication Strategy in climate change. The effective use of communication
strategy will ensure a better understanding of the implications of climate change to the
Tanzanian community and how best to benefit from the initiatives related to mitigating
climate change at national level and globally
