The
Country Director of Heifer International Dr. Henry Njakoi shakes hand
with EU Ambassador to Tanzania H.E Filiberto Sebregondi during the Eco
Village grant award ceremony at University of Dar es salaam.
Dr.
Henry Njakoi ( Right) – Country Director of Heifer Tanzania signs the
1.6 million Euro grant from EU for the Igunga Eco Village project ;
Looking on is the EDF Deputy national authorising officer from Ministry
of Finance- Mr. Godlove stephen.
Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania (June 17, 2015) — The European Union (EU) awarded
Heifer Nederland and Heifer International Tanzania a grant of euro
1,600,000 to fund the Igunga Eco village Project in Tanzania, which will
help the vulnerable community to cope with the impact of climate
change.
This
grant is one of the 5 grant contracts under the second phase of the EU
global Climate Change alliance in Tanzania, which were signed During the
EU Climate Diplomacy Day – celebrating EU’s work of Climate change
Mitigation and adaptation towards a climate resilient world and economy.
The Global Climate Change alliance provides a platform for dialogue and
financial support to adopt to adverse effects of climate change and
works through Eco village integrated approach.
In the
Igunga Eco Village; Heifer Nederland, Heifer Tanzania, Aqua for All ,
the Igunga District Council, and ICIPE will work together with local
communities in nine villages to increase their resilience towards
adverse effects of climate change and will target 6,000 direct families,
6,000 indirect families which in total is 72,000 beneficiaries in the
communities.
During
the grant signing a, the Heifer Tanzania Country Director Dr. Henry
Njakoi said “We will work with communities to support natural resource
management, strengthen socio economic situations and increase the
agricultural productivity in the villages. Heifer will also work with
the Igunga district council to build the capacity of their technical
departments. “The capacity building will enable the Igunga district
council to access, plan and implement climate change practices within
their policies and programs and share lessons learnt and experiences
with others “added Dr. Njakoi.
The
Eco village approach in phase one covered three eco village areas; the
semi-arid Eco village which was the Chololo semi-arid area in Dodoma;
Ocean -Eco village through the Replicable solutions to climate change
project in Pemba and Mountains Eco village in the Uluguru Mountains.
Phase two will scale up the successful innovations of the eco village
approach to a tune of 8 million euros (Tanzania shillings 18 billion) in
the second phase compared to the 2.2 million euros in phase one.
Climate
change is affecting the eco system by climate induced and more frequent
droughts, increased numbers of forest degradation, deforestation, water
scarcity and reduced crop yields.
According
to Dr. Gharib Bilal ; the Vice president of Tanzania ; the world
average temperature of 0.85 degrees centigrade will lead to catastrophic
consequences in Africa. The decrease in Temperature has triggered big
impacts in agriculture. Sub shara Africa may see a decrease of 90% in
Maize yields, 68% in beans yields and a decrease in coffee yields by 18%
for southern Africa and 22 % across all sub Saharan Africa. : Africa
braces losing more than 300 million US dollars in the regional economy
from agriculture. With Disease induced by extreme flooding is likely to
impact a good number of African countries by 2020 alluded Dr. Bilal.
The
project in Igunga aims at increasing the adaptation of climate change
strategies and increasing the yield of farmers by 40 % through the
introduction of climate smart technologies. Farmer field school approach
will be used, where the farmers will be trained on a wide range of
proven climate adaptation technologies including integrated pest
control, tree planting and renewable energy sources. Innovative
techniques to Recharge, Retain and Re- use water will be tested and
scaled up to make efficient use of available water sources. Heifer will
distribute and train the beneficiaries on passing on the Gift where
Chicken, Fish , Push Pull technology knowledge and seeds will be passed
on to members of the community.
Speaking
during the EU Climate Diplomacy day celebrations held only 200 days
before COP21 Climate change conference in Paris, Her Excellency
Ambassador Malika Berak – Ambassador of France to Tanzania called for
all countries in the world to preserve the climate c for the global good
and urged participation of the Tanzania Government, Civil Society
organizations and private sector to attend the conference. “The COP21
Paris Conference is the beginning of Zero Carbon. Zero Poverty world
“said Ambassador Malika Berak
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