YouSaid · the spoken record

Senior Colonel Mahamadou Seidou Magagi

lines on the record: 10
first: 2020-07-24
most recent: 2020-07-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Finally, in order for it to better assist countries around the world mitigate climate security risks, I propose that the United Nations conduct an integrated climate security assessment before assisting countries, assist in building national- to-local capabilities to monitor and manage climate change effects; task United Nations country teams that are in contact with relevant Government bodies to collect authoritative information on the impact of climate-related security risks in conflict settings and make those results available to the States Members of the United Nations; ensure that the United Nations Development Assistance Framework fully integrates climate-related security risks and management with due consideration to gender; strengthen the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency response in order to add a component of climate-related security risk assessment to be made available to the Security Council; and establish and sustain a United Nations climate security risk management coordination mechanism.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“In addition, since 2016, the Niger has headed the Climate Commission for the Sahel Region, comprising 17 African countries and aimed at facilitating the implementation of Paris Agreement on Climate Change in the subregion.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Internally, the Niger has adopted innovative policies, strategies, programmes and initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change and strengthening its people’s resilience. For example, the landmark initiative entitled “Nigeriens nourishing Nigeriens” has enabled the Niger to avert famines in spite of droughts. Thanks to that initiative, the Niger has not experienced famine since 2011 and by 2012 had already succeeded, ahead of schedule, in reducing by 50 per cent the portion of its population threatened by food insecurity. At the subregional level, the Niger is actively taking part to diverse climate action. Since 1974, the Niger has hosted the AGRHYMET Regional Center, in charge of weather forecasting and food security in the Sahel.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Indeed, the spread of conflict in the region is linked less to dwindling resources than to a transformation of the modes of production, resulting in poorly regulated competition over access to increasingly coveted resources, particularly arable land. From the foregoing, it appears that climate change is one factor among others driving conflicts in the Sahel. However, the expected level of global warming and its consequences for humans across the world, particularly in the Sahel, will exacerbate security risks. That situation requires that we shoulder our individual and collective responsibility to prepare, for our generation and the next. In response to climate change in the Sahel, the Niger’s national initiatives and regional leadership are making a positive impact.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“In essence, climate change should be seen as a threat multiplier. High levels of poverty and low levels of State capacity are often more influential drivers of conflict. In the central Sahel, for instance, the International Crisis Group’s April 2020 report revealed that climate change has an indirect link to conflict through disruption of the tenuous balance between pastoral and agricultural production systems, to the detriment of herders. In central Mali, this partly explains the increasing tensions between sedentary and nomadic pastoralists over access to land and pastures. The report stresses that in many instances the inability of nation States to adequately handle those tensions leads to violent conflict.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“A survey conducted last year by the Centre National d’Études Stratégiques et de Sécurité in the Lake Chad part of the Niger revealed that the successive floods of 2012 and 2013 boosted Boko Haram recruitment, as young people who had lost their crops turned to the extremist movement as an alternative. In addition, a landmark study conducted by Adelphi linked climate change and conflict dynamics in a vicious circle. In the Lake Chad region, climate change increases the likelihood of conflict, while conflict undermines the ability of communities to cope and adapt to climate change. Although the aforementioned trends can fuel conflict, the link between climate change and conflicts is not always straightforward. Recent studies agree that climate change is but one among many drivers of conflict.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Competition between farmers and herders is worsening in central Mali and northern Nigeria, with a growing death toll. Considering future weather forecasts for the region and keeping in mind the fact that the Sahel has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, approximately 3 per cent a year, that competition is likely to increase. Thirdly, many people are forced to migrate if they are to survive. In cases where migrants settle for long periods of time, risks of conflicts with residents are high. In worst-case scenarios, some individuals, mostly young people, turn to illegal activities as a means of coping with the impacts of climate change.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Livelihoods handed down through generations are at risk as water tables dry up, crop yields diminish and the desert slowly overtakes once-fertile lands. All of this change is bound to have adverse consequences for regional peace and security. First, it directly affects personal income and living standards. Because 2012 combined floods and drought, millions of Sahelians were further impoverished as they lost their crops and cattle. In West Africa as a whole, 19 million people were affected. Secondly, the change in weather and the resulting natural disasters exacerbate the already intense competition among the rural population, especially farmers and herders, for scarce natural resources such as land, water and pasture. It is not surprising that in the Niger most conflicts between rural people occurred between farmers and herders.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Already high temperatures, oscillating on average between 25°C to 45°C, are on the rise and projected to increase by 2.5°C by 2060 in the Sahel. As global temperatures rise, annual rainfalls in the Sahel are becoming highly variable in intensity and frequency. This leads, over the years, to frequent heavy rains, floods, strong winds, sandstorms and drought. In the Niger, for instance, 85 per cent of the 3,702 natural-disaster events that occurred between the years 1973 and 2014 took place from 2001 to 2014. High temperatures also mean increased evaporation of the already scarce surface water in the Sahel, contributing to severe droughts. These changes in weather bring hardships to the Sahel’s people, since 80 per cent of them depend on activities sensitive to climate change for their livelihood.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“I wish to thank you, Mr. President, for this opportunity to speak today on climate and security. My remarks will focus on issues and alternatives from my part of the world, the African Sahel. I will start by addressing the extent to which climate change is impacting the livelihoods of citizens, examine the broader consequences of climate change on regional security, highlight the Niger’s role in alleviating climate change and, finally, formulate some recommendations to the United Nations. There are few places in the world where climate change is more real than in the Sahel. In the best of conditions, the Sahel is a challenging place, particularly for farmers and herders — two of the common ways in which people make a living in the Sahel.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source