By Deodatus Mfugale
The Citizen Correspondent
Durban. Tanzania is determined to implement climate change adaptation measures but the resolve has seen little progress due to lack of a climate change policy that would not only coordinate climate change adaptation activities undertaken by various stakeholders, but also coordinate these activities to achieve tangible results.

Lack of adequate money to fund adaptation projects particularly at community level has also seen the country lag behind in implementing these projects thus occasioning huge economic and social loss through impacts of climate change.

In an exclusive interview with The Citizen last Saturday, Dr Elizabeth Gray, Global Climate Change Fellow at The Nature Conservancy, said that a climate change policy was important to harness the efforts of various stakeholders undertaking adaptation activities and guiding the same so as to attain one goal.

“A climate change policy is important because it sets out the strategy to adapt and directs resources to adaptation activities that respond to priority needs of communities. Without such a policy there will be no mechanism to determine who is doing what and whether they are doing the right thing and resources spent have brought the expected results.

“A policy is also important in data collection and management because implementing adaptation activities should be based on adequate data on various aspects, which can only be gathered when there is an authoritative mechanism to guide the collection,” she said.

However, Dr Gray hastened to say that even where there is a climate change policy, successful implementation of adaptation activities, would only be realised when there are enough funds for the purpose.

“There is a huge cost involved in implementing activities. Of course a country could use its local resources but some projects need huge amounts of money and this calls for additional sources of funding.

In fact this is one of the cases in which a policy is needed so as to determine how adaptation projects would be funded,” she noted, adding that a policy could also give guidance on how to mobilise local resources to provide for an adaptation fund.

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