Children's Vulnerability to Climate Change and Disaster ... - Unicef UK

6.7 Ensuring genuine participation of
children in climate change
adaptation efforts
Climate change is an intergenerational
problem – it requires an ‘inter-generational
agent’ to adapt and manage it. Children and
youth represent a tremendous resource of skill
and creativity that has yet been tapped. As the
UNICEF country studies illustrate, children and
youth want to be engaged. This is underscored
by the emergence of child and youth advocacy
groups and social networking media sites
around issues of climate. Governments, the
United Nations and development partners
should support the vocal participation of
children and young people in policy decisions
through investments in national youth policies,
children’s parliaments and youth advisory
councils and innovations in ICT and mobile
technology to foster a sense of social activism
on climate change.
6.8 Scaling up proven interventions
Many of the above solutions have been shown
by pilot programmes in one or more countries,
to be effective strategies that reduce the
vulnerability of children to the effects of
climate change. Sleeping under insecticidetreated
nets protects children from vectorborne
diseases at low cost and could easily be
extended to cover all endemic areas. Diarrhoea
and cholera are curable with antibiotics and
oral rehydration therapy, treatments that are
easily administered even in the most remote
areas. Abolishing school fees, providing cash
transfers to poor families and introducing
water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in
schools are all proven interventions that boost
school enrolment and attendance. In all these
cases, and many of the others described
above, low cost feasible strategies already
exist and have been tested in the field, in pilot
communities, districts or provinces. Achieving
full national coverage with these basic social
goods for children is not just good climate
change protection – it is desirable in its own
right. The seemingly inexorable approach of
climate change and more frequent extreme
events makes the essential provision of these
goods equally inescapable.
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