UNICEF pushes for localized child-focused climate strategies
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Philippines Deputy Representative Behzad Noubary tells The Manila Times that there is an urgent need to localize the National Adaptation Plan and ensure that local governments integrate child-focused climate strategies into their policies and budgets. UNICEF and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources presented its 2025 Climate Landscape Analysis for Children study that showcased how climate vulnerability affects children’s rights and welfare on Nov. 25, 2025.
VIDEO BY ALLEN LIMOS
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00:00Sure. The NAP is the national adaptation plan. NAP is something that every country develops and it's about how a country is looking to adapt itself to the effects of climate change.
00:12Of course it's a plan that's at the national level and really what is important is how it's localized.
00:18So here what we learned today through the launch of the climate landscape analysis for children is that at the policy level the Philippines is doing quite well
00:27So we really need to support the local government units to adapt that plan locally and bring into the issues of children like climate smart health, climate smart education, climate smart water and sanitation into those plans so that they turn into meaningful positive experience for the children.
00:42So how can we, given the different resources of different LGs, how can we make sure the sustainability of this plan?
00:48Sure. Yeah, so this has to be a priority for the local chief executives.
00:52And this is, as we heard the Secretary Borges say, there's a relationship between the national level and the local level.
00:58It needs to be bottom up and top down.
01:00So, by local government units have more and more resources.
01:06The question is what do they prioritize?
01:09And I think what the climate landscape analysis for children shows is that by investing in children, you have a greater return on investment.
01:16If we invest in our children, if they're healthy, if they're well fed, if they are educated, then they also become not only healthier citizens but also more economically active and contribute to the local economy of their LGUs.
01:32So, excuse me, the study reveals interesting data.
01:36So, but my question is what is the, do you have any, on the side of the university, do you have any concrete solution to these problems that you have discovered in this study?
01:49Sure. The climate landscape analysis for children is interesting in the sense that it identified the climate-related shocks and disaggregated that by the different regions in the Philippines,
02:00but also the vulnerabilities of children, the overlaiders.
02:03To see exactly what is the climate risk for children there.
02:06I think this is the first time that we have that in the Philippines disaggregated by a region.
02:10Now, we know that there are lots of solutions and from our side what we see is a need to invest in climate-smart social services.
02:19What do I mean by that?
02:20Climate-smart health, for example, is a health system that is not only energy efficient but also takes into account the environmental determinants of health,
02:29like air pollution causing unnecessary deaths or heat causing loss of school days and so forth.
02:37Climate-smart education as another social service is not only a school that can withstand typhoons and climate-related regresses,
02:45but also a curriculum that teaches children about climate change and what they can do and how they can have more sustainable behaviors.
02:53Do you think we can do anything about it since funding has always been a problem?
02:59Absolutely, we can do something about it and people are doing something about it.
03:02I hope you had a chance to also talk to Josh who is representing the young people today.
03:07And we are going to have a lot of awards this afternoon about the people that are doing something about it.
03:11So there is lots of solutions. The issues are the solutions are staying local.
03:16We are not necessarily being scaled up. We have these islands of success where people are from the grassroots doing some great things,
03:23but we need to make sure that that spreads throughout the country.
03:26There are lots of solutions and I think the young people in the Philippines are leading the way in coming up with these solutions.
03:32What would be the specific commitment of the UNICEF in this area?
03:36Sure. So UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, we are a UN agency mandated by the General Assembly to support the realization of children's rights.
03:45And we know that children's rights are at risk due to climate change.
03:50And we are here to support our partners to generate evidence like the climate landscape analysis for children that was launched today.
03:58We are here to convene and have dialogue like we had today between the government, between young people
04:04and ensure that the children's rights to participation, they are not just beneficiaries children, they are also rights holders and including the right to participation.
04:14They can speak their mind, they can affect policy.
04:17So we also, in addition to the evidence generation, we uphold the children's and young people's rights to participation.
04:23And we support the government, the duty bearers, to make that transition to climate smart health, climate smart education, climate smart water etc.
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