By Daniel Ooko

    NAIROBI, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Lawmakers from the South and North ended a three-day meeting in Nairobi late Thursday and agreed on the need to take joint action to meet the consequences of climate change, particularly in Africa.

    A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the lawmakers from Africa, Europe and Japan also launched the African-European Parliamentary Action Plan on Climate Change to spearhead action on the global warming.

    The agreed Action Plan calls for "specific parliamentary action in the areas of appropriate legislation, policy reform and budgetary re-allocations to counter the damaging effects of climate change in Africa which are now clearly apparent.

    "Climate change concerns and issues should be incorporated international development plans," the parliamentarians stated, while demanding that a further set of recommendations be made "to address the current food security crisis."

    The Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development and Aid Effectiveness, with a special focus on climate change and food security was organized by the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), the Pan-African Parliament, and the Kenya Parliament.

    An expert group, including the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) and the Sasakawa Africa Association, met before the Forum to prepare recommendations in support of the Parliamentary Action Plan.

    As a symbolic gesture of support for the launch of the Action Plan, Kenya's Vice President, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, planted a tree "which will grow and flourish as an enduring sign of our determination to confront the challenge of climate change."

    The African and European Parliamentarians developed a parliamentary consensus for the Accra Agenda for Action to be tabled at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra next week (September1-4).

    "We believe that this will help to produce the new aid architecture under the auspices of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, which will be agreed in 2010", commented Par Granstedt, Secretary General of AWEPA.

    "For the first time we have international recognition that it was a mistake not to include parliamentarians in the process."

    AWEPA has organized a team of 25 parliamentarians to attend the High Level Forum.

    Among recommendations put forward was a call by the Ugandan Member of Parliament Princess Kabakumba Masiko, Vice Chair of the NEPAD Group of African Parliamentarians, "to ensure that all Overseas Development Assistance becomes gender sensitive."

    Her remarks were echoed by the Deputy Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly, Farah Maalim, who said, in closing the Forum, that "sustainable development cannot be adequately addressed without recognizing the gender issue."

    Giving a key note address during the closing ceremony, Kenya's Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources and Acting Minister for Finance, John Michuki, called for parliamentarians to "take a leading role in changing the mind set of those who produce substances that harm the environment."

    The forum brought together over 150 parliamentarians from across Africa, Europe and Asia to share knowledge and experiences in areas of climate change and food security.

    The Nairobi Forum will further engage parliamentarians in the aid effectiveness debate and the ongoing process of monitoring the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.