National climate change communication strategy (2012-2017)

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