A Network of Civil Society in Environment (NCSE) has sought support of the Kaduna State House of Assembly’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources for the protection of environment and addressing climate change.
This was contained in a communique issued by the Network to newsmen on Tuesday in Kaduna.
The communique was signed by Gloria Kasang, Coordinator of the network, Zinta Apoko, the Secretary, and Danjuma Dangwa, the Deputy Coordinator.
Other signatories to the communique were Lydia Saleh, the network’s Deputy Secretary, Jeremiah Irimiya, the Head of Research and Development, and Mr Simon Zagwa, the Monitoring Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Officer.
The network comprised civil society groups, media, academia and private sector who have been working with national and sub national governments, including Kaduna State.
They are leveraging on community based organisations, civil society organisations and existing engagement frameworks with the media to advocate, educate and strengthen capabilities in the area of environmental protection and climate change.
The network said the assembly’s committee was a critical actor with composite representative of the people with oversight functions on issues concerning the environment in terms of performance and efficiency of the legal framework, institutions, policy and interventions.
According to the network, the committee is targeted at alleviating the concerns of the people in the area of environment protection, sustainability and management amidst the challenges posed by climate change.
The network, therefore, noted that its advocacy visit to the assembly was to seek establishment of a permanent dialogue mechanism with the committee targeted at addressing climate change and other environmental challenges.
The network believed that such platform would enable robust dialogue, access to research and evidence for better service delivery through legislative duties of the committee.
“The parliament is a significant institution in Nigeria’s democracy for citizens to engage on issues of service quality, legal framework for policy implementation and systems strengthening of government institutions for expected results.
“These are only attainable with open spaces for engagement with the committee which a permanent dialogue mechanism can enable.
“Through the mechanism, the committee will interact with research and access reliable data for decision making.
“It will consistently engage diverse stakeholders in the promotion of the right ecosystem for sustaining the environment amidst the challenges of climate,” the network said.
The communique therefore outlined that the committee expressed its commitment to being intentional in working with the network to establish a permanent dialogue mechanism in addressing climate change and environmental issues.
The communique also outlined that the committee pledged to leverage on the network’s membership to ensure the environment got the multi-sectoral approach, cooperation and attention it demanded.
It also said that the committee acknowledged the benefits of enabling ecosystem for sustainability initiatives which the permanent dialogue mechanism could enable and pursue the possibilities.
The committee expressed committment to partnerships that could aid it in protecting the people by protecting the environment and encourageing more stakeholders to reach out.
