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United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa has launched a maiden edition of the Natural Resource Management Leadership for Climate Change (NATURELEAD) course to educate civil servants on climate change and natural resource management.
The five-day structured course delivers a specialized non-degree course to professionals from government ministries, and the private sector.
Organised in partnership with the Foreign Service Institute under Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, its hosts participants from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana participants representing Anglophone West Africa.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, addressing the participants emphasized the importance of sustainable development, climate diplomacy, and regional collaboration, highlighting Africa’s unique vulnerabilities and opportunities in the global climate discourse.
“Effective natural resource management strategies will be pivotal for driving economic growth, enhancing livelihoods, and building resilient socio-ecosystems. By adopting a nexus approach, we can mitigate climate impacts, safeguard biodiversity, and create sustainable livelihoods,” she said.
The Director of UNU-INRA, Dr. Fatima Denton explained that the course is designed in a way that helps participants understand the intersections between climate change and natural resources.
Therefore, Dr Denton explained that engaging the Foreign Affairs Ministry is ideal since climate change is beyond just one ministry requiring “an all-government approach and the ministry intersects with climate change through border security management matters, cross-border problems, shared river-basins as well as all aspects of peace and security; managing conflict, migration, etc.”
Prof. Jewette Masinja, the UNU-INRA Zambia Coordinator for NatureLead Course in an interview with environmental journalist, Daniel Anyorigya explained that the world is changing from hydrocarbon utilisation to renewable energy and civil servants who are key players in the country’s development must be knowledgeable about these sectors hence the need to be trained.
Miss Nti, the CEO of YN Regeneration Network Limited, in an interview, explained that being a stakeholder in the green economy “ it is exciting to know that we have different participants across Africa because climate change is a global phenomenon but with a local specific context.”
Miss Nti, added that this provides an opportunity for stakeholders to “devise strategies that work pragmatically because it is not a one-country solution that will be able to roll out globally. We need a global solution to a global problem so it is an interesting initiative”.
