Climate action
According to UNICEF children’s climate risk index, Cameroon ranks among the ten countries globally where children are the most exposed to climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses.
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The challenges
The country encompasses many of the climates and ecosystems of tropical Africa, with its Sahelian areas severely affected by drought, desertification and seasonal flooding, its coastal areas threatened by accelerated coastal erosion and rising water levels, and its Congo Basin areas affected by deforestation and biodiversity loss.
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of disasters, including droughts and floods. Cameroon's revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs, 2021) indicate that this is expected to be a concern in the Sudan-Sahelian, coastal and forest agro-ecological zones (AEZs) with bimodal rainfall patterns. Projections indicate that there could be at least five to ten floods per year, depending on the intensity of rainfall (MINEPDED, 2015a; Tchindjang, 2013; Study on Vulnerability, 2021).
Extreme weather events can damage or destroy vital infrastructure, including in the WASH, health and education sectors. On the slow-onset side, rising temperatures and sea levels can contaminate freshwater sources, threatening the water resources on which millions of people depend. Changes in rainfall patterns and river flows, as well as increased demand, can contribute to an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts. Furthermore, when rain does fall in drought-stricken areas, the soil is unable to absorb the much-needed water, leading to flooding, reduced recharge of aquifers and contamination of water resources. In addition, the crisis is expected to cause significant output losses, exacerbate poverty and inequality, increase food insecurity and the risk of conflict, and lead to greater population displacement. Climate-induced output losses would reduce export capacity and may require increased imports to meet food, sanitation and health needs during crises or to invest in post-crisis reconstruction. As a result, climate change will also increase the balance of payments needs and demand for fiscal space. The social and economic impacts would affect human capital development, threaten progress and hinder inclusive growth.
In addition to the disasters linked to climate change, Cameroon is also exposed to coastal erosion along its coastline and the steady loss of forests in the Congo Basin, even if the rate of deforestation is slower than in the Amazon or the Gulf of Guinea. This vital lung of the planet is exposed to anarchic timber exploitation, depriving local and indigenous communities, who are already among the most vulnerable, of their vital resources. It is important to note that climate change accelerates environmental degradation, including coastal erosion and deforestation, meaning that climate action and environmental protection are interrelated and cannot be separated.
The above events have already caused significant human and socio-economic losses in Cameroon, affecting the well-being of thousands of people across the country, especially children. Heatwaves1 also affect children, whose physiology cannot tolerate high temperatures and prolonged temperatures above 35 degrees. In the northern regions of Cameroon (Far North and North), heatwaves are becoming more frequent, affecting both children's health and their ability to concentrate during school hours.
Protect-Empower-Reduce
UNICEF Cameroon's Climate, Energy, Environment and Children Strategy 2024-2026 identifies three main priorities for the country office to work on, reflecting the objectives of UNICEF's Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (2023-2030): Protect-Empower-Reduce, taking into account the specific context of Cameroon. These priorities will be implemented by focusing on the following strategic approaches:
- Establish and maintain forward-looking, government-led strategic partnerships with key institutions, including but not limited to the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the National Climate Change Observatory (ONACC), to support the adaptation needs of children and vulnerable groups and reduce the level of climate risks to which they are exposed.
- Leverage private sector expertise, assets and advocacy to support children's adaptation and resilience needs.
- Build climate programming and advocacy with and for children and youth.
- Innovate, scale up, collect data and generate knowledge for evidence-based advocacy in support of child-sensitive climate action in Cameroon.
- Strengthen and scale up current CEED programming and cross-sectoral mainstreaming, including the progressive integration of social and environmental safeguards.
- Increase the development of multi-sector or multi-partner projects/programmes, taking advantage of new opportunities for climate finance.
- Set an example by minimising UNICEF Cameroon's carbon footprint and work with other UN agencies, civil society organisations, government and the private sector to promote environmentally sound practices and ensure a healthier environment for Cameroon's children.
Protect
Protect the lives, health and well-being of children and the resilience of their communities by providing essential social services in the face of a changing climate, more frequent disasters and environmental degradation.
Children are the least responsible for climate change and yet bear the greatest burden of its impacts. Therefore, ensuring that services are strong and resilient to climate-related events is a critical component of UNICEF Cameroon's work.
Under this first objective, UNICEF Cameroon is committed to mainstreaming sustainability and climate action in all programming activities, ensuring that programme interventions in development and humanitarian contexts are resilient, environmentally sound and sustainable. This includes health, education, child protection, WASH, nutrition and social protection, ensuring that interventions, facilities and infrastructure, supply chains, etc. are environmentally friendly and resilient to shocks.
The key interventions for this objective are as follows:
1- Facilitating the creation of evidence and data to ensure that policies and public budgets are climate-sensitive and address specific risks related to children.
2- Supporting and promoting climate-resilient social services in the four Areas of Acceleration (AoA) identified in the UNICEF Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan while safeguarding the social and environmental well-being of communities.
The four areas are child-responsive DRR (AoA1), Renewable energy for health, education (AoA2), WASH in remote areas (AoA3) and youth empowerment as climate champions (AoA4).
3- Supporting the UNICEF Sustainability and Climate Change Action Pla Area of Acceleration 1 on climate-informed risk reduction, humanitarian action, and resilient recovery from disasters. This includes early warning and early action to increase the resilience of vulnerable families to climate-related shocks through social protection systems and community engagement (e.g. risk communication and preparedness).
4- Identifying and characterizing environmental exposure risks in children’s environments.
Expected Results Linked with Climate
• UNICEF successfully supported the Cameroon government in updating climate, environmental, and disaster policies or plans to be responsive to the needs of children and adolescents.
• WASH, education, and health infrastructure in Cameroon are climate-resilient and provide quality services to children in areas most affected by climate change.
• UNICEF enhanced the Cameroon government's capacity for anticipation and preparedness to minimize the impact of climate change on children and adolescents.
• UNICEF Cameroon conducted a Children’s Environmental Health (CEH) Assessment taking advantage of the upcoming MICS (2025).
Empower
![young winners of the "Terre propre" contest visits UNICEF](/cameroon/sites/unicef.org.cameroon/files/styles/two_column/public/1R1A6165.JPG.webp?itok=lhXlT5Lp "young winners of the "Terre propre" contest visits UNICEF")
empower every child through their life course with the developmental opportunities, education, and skills to be a champion for the environment.
Under the objective “EMPOWER”, the goal is to ensure the voices, perspectives, ideas and actions of children and young people are heard and considered at the highest levels, and that they have the education and skills necessary to be agents of change in their communities.
The key interventions for this objective are as follows:
1- Supporting youth-led advocacy and visibility: Engage with and support the mobilization of adolescents and young people around sustainability, and resilience on climate change to help them be climate/environmental champions and agents of change and provide them with skills, resources, and platforms to exercise their voices and meaningfully participate in climate national and international environmental decision-making processes.
2- Foster active and concrete youth participation in climate change to support regional/global youth-led coalitions or partnerships, to position Cameroon regionally and globally. This includes strengthening youth networks engaged in environmental protection and climate action. This also includes operational innovation to make youth engagement a practical reality.
3- Educate children from a very young age in the environment inside and outside the classroom (through communities and clubs at the community level and digital platforms). This includes green skills for adolescents to identify current opportunities and gaps in the development of these skills, their ability to react during disasters and advocacy and communication skills.
4- Make children and young people across Cameroon, especially in the Sahel and the Congo Basin, agents of change on climate and the environment inside and outside the classroom (through U-report communities and clubs at the community level in addition to digital platforms) – including green skills for adolescents to identify current opportunities and gaps in the development of these skills, of their ability to react during natural disasters and advocacy skills.
5- Implement consultative surveys and participatory action research involving adolescents and young people to explore and share insights on sustainability, and climate change with a focus on green skills, water scarcity, and disaster risks, needs, experiences, and solutions for influencing policies and practices.
Expected Results Linked to Climate
• Children, adolescents, and young people are equipped to raise their voices and effectively participate in climate, environmental sustainability, sustainable energy, and/or disaster risk reduction initiatives and policies. This includes volunteerism, entrepreneurship, policy development and/or advocacy.
• Children, from their earliest age to 25 years old – within and outside the school environment, are informed on climate, energy, environment challenges, and/or disaster risk reduction in education / green skills (curricular or non-curricular) and can effectively contribute to their community.
• UNICEF Cameroun conducted surveys/participatory action research to seek children’s views and opinions on climate, energy, environment, and/or disaster risk reduction, and support their advocacy on evidence-based information.
Reduce
Reduce UNICEF's emissions and environmental footprint, support its global network of partners to do the same, and advocate for the achievement of ambitious international sustainability and climate change agreements.
The third goal, "REDUCE", focuses on greening and accessibility and aims to reduce UNICEF's greenhouse gas emissions and environmental footprint - from air travel, vehicle fleets and facilities to reducing water consumption and paper use. As part of this goal, UNICEF Cameroon is also committed to improving the accessibility of its premises to ensure that persons with disabilities have an adequate level of comfort and mobility within UNICEF's inclusive premises, using UNICEF's web-based Environmental Footprint & Accessibility Assessment Tool (EFAAT) as well as UNICEF's Eco-Efficiency & Inclusive Access in its premises and operations.
This objective also includes the establishment of a Green Team to facilitate and accelerate its implementation and the implementation of several activities to enable all country office locations (Bertoua, Buea, Douala Hub, Maroua and Yaoundé) to maximise eco-efficiency and achieve accessibility goals.
To achieve this important objective, UNICEF Cameroon has established a Green Team led by the Deputy Representative Operations and composed of staff from various sectors committed to contributing to the environmental cause and the implementation of the Action Plan. The Green Team's role is to communicate with staff and stakeholders and to measure, monitor and report on the progress of greening and accessibility activities.
The key interventions for this objective are as follows:
• Conducting regular collection of data on energy consumption, including utility and fuel consumption, travel authorizations, etc.), to improve vehicle tracking and fuel management system and explore the use of solar energy power systems, whenever possible.
• Building staff awareness through information sharing and regular communications and behaviour change messages and campaigns to ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and promote the efficient use of resources (energy consumption, water conservation, waste management and recycling, indoor air quality, e-waste, paper use, carpooling, use of skype if feasible instead of travel, etc.).
• Building expertise on sustainable supply and procurement chains that positively contribute to sustainability and protection of the environment.
• Improving County office premises’ accessibility by identifying and addressing priorities and interventions to raise the level of accessibility.
Expected results linked with EFAAT reporting requirements:
• Environmental initiatives, communication of progress, and sustainability and accessibility efforts are effectively implemented and monitored.
• Data-driven resource management is strengthened, and energy efficiency measures are implemented.
• Sustainable procurement practices are developed and promoted, ensuring a positive contribution to environmental sustainability across all supply and procurement processes.
• Awareness and Behavior Change are fostered, and staff committed to sustainability and inclusivity is evidenced through for example the signing by every staff of the Pledge to Act Sustainably at UNICEF and the completion of the AGORA training on Climate change.
• Recommendations from EFAAT reports/energy/water audits are implemented.
• Smart energy meters are installed in all offices to monitor accurately consumption.
Meet Terra, our mascot of climate action
Terra is a friendly lioness in the colours of the Cameroonian flag. She represents resilience and adaptation to difficult conditions and reminds us of the importance of combating climate change. This mascot supports UNICEF's climate action and advocates for more actions to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on children.
The mascot was created following a competition among children and young people on social networks.
As a symbol of UNICEF's climate action in Cameroon, the mascot will be used in comic strips, cartoons, posters, etc.