Training Workshop on Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Social Accountability to Enhance Citizens and Civil Society Participation in Climate Governance
Title: Training Workshop on Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Social Accountability to Enhance Citizens and Civil Society Participation in Climate Governance
Venue: District Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Date: 23 July, 2024
Transparency International Pakistan (TI Pakistan) organized a Training Workshop on Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Social Accountability in collaboration with a local partner Friends Organization in Mansehra on July 23, 2024. Around 50 people, 23 women and 27 men, including members from civil society, the local community of the flood-prone mountainous areas of the district Mansehra, youth, climate change experts, and journalists participated.
The main objective of the training was to provide awareness to the participants on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, and social accountability tools surrounding climate action. The activity aimed at empowering participants to identify and report environmental issues, including issues involving mismanagement of climate funds, irregularities in climate projects and other malpractices.
The event commenced with the recitation of the Holy Quran, setting a respectful and contemplative tone for the day’s proceedings. Ms. Nasreen Memon, Project Coordinator at TI Pakistan, welcomed the participants and shared TI Pakistan’s aims and objectives. Ms. Nasreen further explained the Climate Governance Integrity Program (CGIP), showing how corruption in climate funding delays progress and harms vulnerable communities.
Ms. Faiza, Program Coordinator at Friends Organization led an interactive introduction where participants voiced environmental concerns for Mansehra. The participants noted the rising climate vulnerability since 2022, including accelerated glacier melting and increased risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) amid frequent extreme weather events. They also noted climate change’s effects on agriculture and the health of the local population with dwindling water resources.
Moving on, Ms. Nasreen delivered a presentation explaining climate change and linking its effects with natural disasters and extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves, droughts and inundation. She also highlighted Mansehra’s vulnerability to flash floods, GLOF, and other climate-related disasters. During the presentation, she urged participants to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts, emphasizing lifestyle changes to reduce carbon footprints and improve resilience against such events.
Afterwards, Dr. Zainab Tariq, climate change expert, highlighted that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Climate Change Policy 2022 proactively addresses the environmental challenges. She explained that the policy covers sectors like energy and transportation and focuses on mitigation and adaptation through training and capacity building. The mitigation strategies include renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, disaster risk reduction, forest conservation, and climate financing. She also underlined gaps in the policy, highlighting insufficient coverage of relevant sectors, inadequate resources, weak capacity and coordination, limited community engagement and awareness and the need for vulnerability assessments. In the end, she suggested the relevant stakeholders to address these gaps.
Next, Mr. Tariq Baig, Director of Development Friends Organization Mansehra, outlined a comprehensive approach to mitigation, adaptation, and climate justice. He also called for cutting greenhouse emissions by transitioning to renewable energy sources, while explaining the adoption of sustainable agriculture. Mr. Baig urged climate-resilient infrastructure that could withstand natural disasters with early warning systems for timely preparation and called for consistent monitoring. He suggested engaging local communities and called for inclusive and fair climate decision-making.
Afterwards, participants engaged in Community resilience-building exercise to identify district’s vulnerabilities. A total of 6 groups highlighted different challenges such as infrastructure issues, deforestation, crop damage, excessive use of air conditioners, waste pollution and lack of proper climate change awareness. The participants suggested mitigation measures such as planting more trees, spreading awareness about climate change and opting for sustainable habits, with an emphasis on a climate-focused curriculum at school level.
After breakout discussion groups, Mr. Jahanzaib, a District Monitoring Officer at Right to Informatio (RTI), Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission conducted a session on Social Accountability Tools for Transparent Climate Action and Citizen Participation in Climate Decision Making. He explained the KP RTI Act 2013 to the participants and explained its importance in the transparent implementation of climate projects. At the conclusion, participants engaged in an open discussion where they asked questions about RTI and the submission process.
Later on, Ms. Nasreen briefed the participants about TI Pakistan’s Legal Advice Centre, and its role in providing free legal advice to the victims and witnesses of corruption, including providing oversight to climate projects. At the end, participants were engaged in a practice of writing RTI applications to different departments.
The speakers and participants expressed their gratitude to TI Pakistan for the session and highlighted their gains from the activity. In the end, participants’ feedback was collected, and certificates were distributed among them.
