Voices for Climate Action (VCA) Programme
In October 2021, the House of Ruth Foundation (HoRF) was contracted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and its alliance partners which include HIVOS, South South North, Akina Mama Wa Afrika, and Slum Dwellers International as part of the Voices for Climate Action (VCA) programme in Zambia following a successful submission of a concept note. The five years VCA project will work with local communities in Kafue District to deliver tangible benefits to people targeting youths, women, and persons living with disabilities, as part of a local and global response to the climate crisis.
Like many countries around the world, Zambia is also facing the effects of climate change. Half of Zambians, the majority being women and young people, still live in poverty, a situation worsened by the slump in economic growth and rising inequalities in recent years. High poverty levels have fuelled the unsustainable use of natural resources, which the rural and urban poor depend on for their food, water, and energy security. The unsustainable exploitation of natural resources has exacerbated the impacts of climate change, while financing systems for climate action remain weak. Climate change is taking a toll on Zambia in many ways. The increasing incidents of droughts, floods, rising temperatures, heat waves, and wildfires have led to energy shortages, crop failure, water insecurity, collapse in fish stocks, increased health risk, and pressure on ecosystems, among others. There has never been a greater urgency for Zambia to work in new ways to fight against the climate crisis. Climate change is not a remote prospect, it is a crisis now!
Supported By
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Programme Duration
5 years (2021 – 2025)
WHAT WE ARE DOING
HoRF has managed to introduce this project to a myriad of key stakeholders with whom it has started to form strong alliances and collaboration networks to compel community members, civic leaders, religious and traditional leaders, youths, men, and women to “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts” by 2030 in line with SDG 13.
Our project under implementation is ensuring that we bring community voices into national platforms for policy change, planning, and resource allocation, as a way of building climate-resilient Zambia and offering homegrown alternative livelihood solutions.
With the current blueprints, HoRF is positioning itself to become the leading voice for JUST Climate Action in the Kafue District of Zambia and is leveraging on readily available social capital, organization assets, donor support, enabling government policy framework, and memorandum of understandings with various government line ministries to take similar action to other districts and provinces of Zambia.
About the Programme
The Voices for Climate Action (VCA) is a 5-year programme (2021-2025) supported by the Dutch government under the “Power of Voices” framework. The programme aims to scale up Zambia’s climate action response targeting vulnerable communities. This action recognizes that climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a societal challenge that brings in ethical and human rights issues. Climate change affects the enjoyment of indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated human rights, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest and threatening to increase existing inequalities between the rich and poor, ethnicities, sexes, generations, and communities. The greatest burden falls on those already in poverty and on underrepresented groups such as Indigenous peoples, the rural and urban poor, women, and youth, although they are the least responsible for climate change.
We are at a critical stage, not only in our fight against the climate crisis, but also in addressing the economic and social challenges to transform our societies in a sustainable, just and inclusive manner. VCA therefore seeks to drive locally-shaped solutions to climate change challenges by empowering local civil society groups and citizens to have their voices heard and be advocates and co-creators in finding solutions. Civil society needs to engage and especially amplify the voices of those who have been left at the margins of decision making and climate action to influence climate change policies. Business as usual approach to climate action will no longer suffice and is no longer appropriate.
Vision
A Zambia where civil society is heard & respected by influencing & co-creating locally relevant, inclusive and fundable climate solutions that deliver real benefits to people & nature as part of a local & global response to this crisis.
