Maat: Awareness must be raised on the importance of strengthening mechanisms to combat climate change at the national level

Okeil: Joint Arab efforts are an important step towards strengthening collective climate action

Essam El-Din: Within 6 months, Maat’s Platform succeeded in raising climate awareness for more than 270 beneficiaries from youth and children

With the exacerbation of daily behaviors depleting the environment that are reflected in climate change, the need to strengthen climate action has emerged in order to control such a global crisis. In this context, and with the beginning of 2023, Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights launched "Maat’s Platform for Climate Action", which aspires to enhance the work of civil society in the field of climate action, by organizing training workshops and activities to discuss mechanisms for addressing and combating climate change at all levels; national, regional and international, as well as releasing studies and publications aimed at raising levels of climate awareness.

During the first half of 2023, the Platform managed to promote climate and environmental awareness, through a series of monthly trainings launched by Maat under the title “Climate Changes in a Popular Context: Reality and Solutions”. In addition, the Platform succeeded in educating different groups of youth, women, children and members of CSOs about the mechanisms, ways and policies to combat climate change, including the launch of community initiatives that would address climate change.

In the first half of 2023, the platform carried out a series of trainings that targeted more than 70 young men and women of different nationalities; including Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Chad, Mauritania and Somalia. These trainings were conducted in cooperation with a number of organizations and community initiatives in Egypt working in the field of sustainable development, climate action and activating the role of youth in combating it.

The platform also succeeded in raising environmental awareness among young people in African community schools in Egypt; it offered a number of awareness-raising workshops for more than 200 students on a large scale in a variety of schools.

In terms of research studies and publications, the platform has launched 6 issues from the SDG 13 Observatory, which tracks the good practices as well as the challenges that Arab countries face in achieving SDG 13 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Observatory focuses on actions and measures adopted by countries and the Arab League to address climate change and its consequences.

Maat’s platform for climate action aspires to increase climate action, raise environmental awareness, and raise the capacities of youth initiatives and organizations to combat the growing phenomenon of climate change.