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"content": "programs, micro programmes and projects tailored to the needs of specific communities. These are very important areas, especially for us in Kenya because 80 per cent of our population is rural-based. Therefore, the projects and programmes that are specific and target rural-based communities are very important. Lastly, the promotion of regional political and commercial cooperation across the board becomes very critical. Madam Temporary Speaker, I will not go through the report in detail because I think everything has been written there. It takes a longer reading to encompass and take some of these points home. However, I want to touch on certain key issues that are in this report as a way for us to borrow from the discussion. The one that strikes me most is on climate change and the realization that many countries, including Kenya, have made efforts. However, sometimes even what we are observing now as disasters is probably as a result of climate change. It was shocking sometime back when, around Nyahururu near the slopes of Mount Kenya, and even another time in Nairobi, we woke up to find snow pebbles. There was a realization that one day we might be the ones experiencing winter rather than the European community, who are now experiencing it. Climate change is, therefore, very real. For me, we might go into an overdrive for education on other infrastructural issues. However, when we do not dwell on climate change, we are going to get it wrong. It is clearly stated here that: “Climate change will lead to a rise in poverty and inequalities.” Therefore, Madam Temporary Speaker, not addressing the problems of climate change might remove overnight all the efforts that have been put in addressing poverty. Therefore, looking at poverty, inequalities, issues of food insecurity, health problems, surface water scarcity, coastal flooding, air pollution and the rise in the displacement of people is very real. This has been happening in other parts of the world but more and more, we are beginning to see the ravages of climate change. This becomes very critical for us. Madam Temporary Speaker, part (c), notes that whereas the most serious effects of climate change are affecting developing counties particularly in the least developing countries, the people affected most by this, as this report clearly indicates, are the women, children, indigenous people, pastoralists, farmers and fishermen. This report at one point also very clearly states the importance of building the blue economy and ensuring that it can be sustained. This is so that at the end of the day it can play a bigger role in the income of a country. That has been ignored for some time but it needs to be put into place. This pinpointing of women, children, indigenous people and pastoralists gives us a nexus of beginning to approach problems with them in focus. Madam Temporary Speaker, I wrap up by looking at the resolutions that were made. One of them is that every state has the primary responsibility to prevent and reduce disaster risk, including international, regional, sub-regional, trans-boundary and bilateral cooperation. This is very encouraging and about the reduction of disasters. We have been looking at it from the point of Kenya at a national level. However, this resolution is very important because it allows us to borrow expertise because we are breathing, getting out and involving trans-boundary and bilateral cooperation through international and regional initiatives. Probably by next week, we will be looking at the issue of the Disaster Management Board and maybe we could ensure it has these components. We are not only The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}