NGO Partners Benue Govt To Help Communities Against Climate Change

A non-governmental organisation under the aegis of International Alert in collaboration with the Benue State government has launched a project tag; “Powering Peace Through Climate” to mitigate the impact of climate related crises in some affected Benue communities.

This is even as the country director Paul-Bemshima Nyulaku, who lamented the decline in agricultural productivity due to climate change and the associated conflict, said this has discouraged so many farmers thereby causing drastic reduction in farming activities and size of yields.

Nyulaku who disclosed this in a welcome address during the project launch in Makurdi the Benue State capital explained that the project is implemented in two countries of Nigeria and Kenya and funded by the Government of Ireland and will be implemented in Benue and Sokoto states.

According to him, the project which will be implemented in two LGAs in each state is targeted at women, young people and traditional rulers of four selected communities in each LGA, adding that the project has great potentials for establishing peace that will deal with the impact of climate change by transforming the local economy of target communities.

International Alert is a peace building organisation based in United Kingdom with a focus on working with government, communities and key stakeholders to promote peace among members of the climate change affected communities

“We believe that peace is within our power, and as key stakeholders we have a critical responsibility not only to deal with the consequences but address the key drivers which the impact of the climate change has affected mostly.

“Extreme climate events such as flooding, extreme heat, drought has led to soil degradation which has resulted in low crop yields, decline in agricultural productivity which discourages farmers and may lead to change in livelihood especially in the rural settings.

“The scarcity and competition for land and other natural resources has led to violent conflict as a result, we need to find ways to deal with the impact of climate change and as well seek to improve agricultural yields through Climate Smart Agricultural practices to promote peace,” he said.

He added that, “Communities affected understand their problems and in most cases the solution, they only need a little push and support to deal with these problems and build resilience for emerging situations that impact on their livelihood and social cohesion.”

Presenting the project overview, the programme manager Anicetus Atakpu said  the project aims at engaging climate affected communities to see how they can improve on their current situation through a participatory approach.