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ECOWAS Parliament set to discuss Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy And Mines issues affecting Region.

The ECOWAS Parliament on Tuesday commenced a delocalized meeting of its Joint Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources/ Infrastructure/ Energy and Mines/ Industry and Private Sector in Guinea Bissau. The Co-Chair of the Joint Committee, Hon. Samson Ahi, from Ghana in his remarks stated that the Parliament chose this focus due to the current major challenges which include: security, health, economic and climate crisis faced by the sub-region. Hon. Ahi stressed that droughts, floods and coastal erosion which are amongst the adverse effects of climate change are adversely impacting the sub-region, hence the need for immediate solutions to address them. He said “our region is dealing with both security, health, economic and climate crises. This last aspect, which is essentially linked to climate change, remains of great concern to us because the West African sub region is mainly an agricultural zone. Consequently, the hazards and adverse effects of climate change including, amongst others, the recurrent droughts, floods and coastal erosion have clear impact on the agricultural performance and food security in our countries. Hence, if we are not careful, these negative factors could permanently jeopardise our gains and frustrate our goals and dreams as contained in the newly adopted ECOWAS Vision 2050”. Speaking further, the Co-Chair of the Joint Committee maintained that the meeting shall be paying great attention to presentations by resource persons from the ECOWAS Commission and invited experts so that the meeting will achieve its aims and objectives. He said: “Given the importance of the issues at the core of our agenda, we shall be paying great attention to presentations by resource persons from the ECOWAS Commission and Specialised Agencies of the Community, as well as the invited experts. I sincerely hope that our meeting will result in relevant and concrete recommendations reflecting the need for Parliamentarians to contribute to all ECOWAS efforts and actions targeted at tackling the effects of climate change and improving agricultural production in the region. For this reason, I urge my colleagues to participate actively in the deliberations and enrich the discussions with a view to identifying new avenues to explore in order to ensure sustainable support for both the environmental strategy and the regional agricultural policy” he said. The Head of Guinea Bissau Delegation to ECOWAS Parliament, Hon. Califa Seidi, who applauded the parliament for bringing the meeting to Bissau, re-echoed the importance of the focus. He said half population of the region is living below poverty lines as a result of food insecurity occasioned by climate change. Hon. Seidi however charged all to endeavour to make Agriculture more sustainable. He said, “there is need for scientific methodology which is aimed at making agriculture nore sustainable and within the framework of environmental friendly processes”. “We sincerely hope that this working days will be productive and that we’ll have the opportunity to work with ECOWAS in a bid to have further information on policies and programmes that have been implemented in ECOWAS region”. While declaring the meeting open, the Speaker of the Guinea Bissau Parliament, Hon. Cipriano CASSAMA said the theme shows the importance of the focus to the development of the sub-region. He stressed the need to have a greater balance in defending the Eco-System in the face of climate change. According to him, nature has given Africa the best environmental condition to prosper with fertile Agricultural lands but the advent of industrialization with its negative effects should be looked into. He said: “the central theme of this delocalized meeting shows the very importance that climatic and agro-logical considerations have for our communities and in particular the 2050 vision which shows how much countries cooperate in the area of environmental affairs and drought environmental matters, natural disaster which affect humanity in general and in particular us Africans. Our responsible therefore in the face of such catastrophes is cross cutting and for us citizens and MPs this is crucial”. He also called on the parliament to come up with legislations that will aid free, fair and transparent elections in the sub-region. “And in particular, I will like to seize opportunity Mr. Vice Chair and Madam Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen parliamentarians to re-activate our condition that our representation in ECOWAS ought to integrate that policy decision on free and fair and transparent elections and citizens of all of our country should embrace that legitimacy within ECOWAS”. He said.

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