The coalition supported children to write child-led Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) contribution report. Malawi signed to the Paris agreement, as a way of showing its commitment to the agreement, the government is obliged to write NDCs, which was firstly submitted in 2017 and it was later updated and resubmitted in 2021. Currently the ,2021-2025 is under review, and the government is expected to submit a new updated NDCs. Children is one of the groups that is heavily impacted by natural disasters for example, cyclone Freddy impacted the lives of nearly 1 million children in Malawi. Specifically, more than 490,000 children were unable to attend school due to the cyclone’s destruction, with many schools closed for at least a month. Additionally, around 2.9 million children were among the 5.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance following the cyclone.
The article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children have a right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously. In addition, Child Participation is also the 4th fundamental principle of child rights making our children’s views very important to be taken into consideration in decision making, and the UNCRC General Comment 26 highlights the impact of climate change on children’s rights. This gives children the mandate to contribute in the newly reviewed NDCs. A total of 105 children (51 boys, 54 girls) were consulted from 3 districts, Salima, Ntchisi, and Lilongwe age ranges from 10 to 16 years, to document NDCs contribution report. NGO CCR and NYNCC lead the processes, in providing guidance and training to the children