NAIROBI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Global campaigners on Sunday said the combined threat of climate change and inequality is eroding children's rights in Africa.
The Joining Forces For All Children lobby group, which brings together ChildFund Alliance, Plan International, Save the Children International, SOS Children's Villages International, Terre des Hommes International Federation, and World Vision International, said incidents of child marriage and school dropouts are on the rise as families struggle to cope with the loss of livelihoods linked to climatic shocks including droughts, floods, and storms.
"Extreme weather events such as devastating floods are displacing thousands of children from their homes and exposing them to violence, abuse, and exploitation," George Otim, country director for Plan International, said in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi at the forum held ahead of the Africa Climate Summit slated for Sept. 4-6.
The forum brought together over 100 children who are climate justice champions from African countries to discuss how global warming is impacting their welfare.
Otim observed that children are keen on efforts that will reduce deforestation because they will enhance children's rights to live in sustainable communities.
He also stressed the importance of creating decent, sustainable livelihoods so that lower-income households would not be driven to take up environmentally harmful practices.
Gilbert Kamanga, national director at World Vision Kenya, said children most affected by economic inequality and discrimination are the hardest hit by the impacts of climate hazards, but their rights are often neglected, and their voices often go unheard.
"Without concrete and urgent action, these children will be pushed further into poverty as the frequency and intensity of slow-onset and sudden climate-related disasters increase in the future," Kamanga said.
He urged the international community to prioritize grassroots-led initiatives in order to comprehensively address the immediate needs of children, especially girls, and vulnerable groups, to avert the risk of widespread starvation in Africa. ■
