Mozambican Female Scientist Seeks Functional Strategy To Tackle Climate Change In African

Posted by Eric Ojo African News, Articles/Opinion, Latest Headlines Monday, March 14th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A 28-year-old Mozambican climate scientist and researcher, Iracema Mamadu Hussein has reiterated the need to improve and seek functional strategies and policies aimed at tackling climate change in Africa.
Hussein, who is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in the field of climate change at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, through a scholarship programme funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), said such strategies should be tailored to address the realities on ground in the continent.
“I believe that a lot is being done to respond to Africa’s climate change challenges. As a professor and researcher at an academy, I believe it is important to create alliances between academies, decision-makers, and society in general, to support the creation and improvement – as well as the implementation of such strategies and policies.
“These strategies should provide for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in a manner applicable to Africa’s reality. This way, we would also be responding to the [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, climate action and partnerships”, she said in a statement published on the website of AfDB.
As part of events streamlined to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, with the theme, “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow”, she was asked by the management of the Bank to speak on the role of women in climate change adaptation, mitigation and response.
The climate scientist noted that women’s contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation in Africa is indispensable, adding that she has noticed the interest of women in studying climate change.
Environmental education and population awareness, according to her, are fundamental to changing behaviour and human action in the face of climate change.
“As African women, we can, with existing resources, make our contribution to climate change adaptation in Africa. To younger women and girls considering careers related to adaptation or sustainability to climate change, my advice is that they [should] believe more in themselves.
“They should believe in their potential and the crucial importance of getting involved – and in the indispensable contribution of women in the adaptation of climate change adaptation and mitigation in Africa”, she added.
Hussein, who is also teaching at Unilúrio University, said studying climate change is as challenging for her as studying other areas. “My interest in climate science is based on understanding this phenomenon globally and particularly in Africa – given the continent’s susceptibility to extreme weather events”, she further explained.

She observed that one of the main challenges of climate change in Africa is increasingly intense and successive extreme events like cyclones, floods and droughts, noting that there are also changes in weather variables, such as rising temperatures and changes in precipitation, and rising sea levels.
“All of this has a direct impact on human life and well-being, and on the economies of countries. Climate change affects climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture, livestock, water resources, human health, infrastructure and the ecosystem”, stressed.
Speaking on the AfDB-sponsored programme that brought her from Mozambique to Portugal to study climate change, Hussein said the programme (Mozambique-Unilúrio-Support to Skills Development for Agriculture and Industry Project), encourages the inclusion of women in science by giving her the opportunity to attend the course in Biology & Ecology of Global Change in one of Portugal’s best institutions of higher education.
“The programme covers three years of tuition expenses, housing, food, and return airfare from Portugal. At the conclusion of my studies, I intend to create a local network that connects the university, fishing and farming communities and society at large, in order to work on awareness and behaviour change about global climate change”, she further disclosed.