By Moses Magadza

DURBAN, South Africa – The Secretary General of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Her Excellency Boemo Sekgoma, has hailed Sweden for bringing diplomacy closer to communities and creating a powerful platform for collective action on the intertwined challenges of climate change, gender inequality, public health and human rights.

Delivering concluding remarks at Sweden on the Road: Gender-responsive Climate Action Edition at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville Campus on 9 September 2026, Ms Sekgoma commended the Embassy of Sweden, under Ambassador Her Excellency Anna Karin Eneström, and UKZN for convening the timely dialogue.

She said the gathering had brought together diplomacy, Parliament, academia, civil society, the private sector and young people to confront one of the defining challenges of the age.

“What we have witnessed today is more than a dialogue,” Sekgoma said. “It is a meeting of evidence and experience. A meeting of policy and practice. A meeting of generations.”

She described the event as “a rehearsal for the collective action our region must urgently embrace” and stressed that effective climate action must respond not only to the environment, but also to people’s health, rights and dignity.

“We commend Sweden for creating a platform that brings diplomacy closer to the people. Closer to universities. Closer to communities. Closer to young people. And closer to the lived realities that must inform national, regional and global policy,” she said.

Ms Sekgoma thanked Ambassador Eneström for her leadership and applauded Sweden’s sustained commitment to gender equality, human rights, democratic governance, innovation, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

She also celebrated the enduring relationship between Sweden and South Africa, describing it as one “forged through solidarity and carried forward through cooperation for a more equal, sustainable and resilient future.”

Ms Sekgoma said the mobile, university-hosted and multi-stakeholder character of Sweden on the Road offered a valuable model for engagement across the region. It enabled diplomats, parliamentarians, researchers, civil society actors, innovators and young people to deliberate around a shared agenda informed by evidence and lived experience.

Addressing the nexus between climate change and human wellbeing, she said the effects of extreme weather could no longer be understood in purely environmental or infrastructural terms.

“When a flood washes away a road, it does not wash away only gravel and tar,” she said. “It may wash away a pregnant woman’s route to a maternity ward. It may sever an adolescent’s access to contraception and other essential services. It may interrupt the treatment of a person living with HIV.”

Similarly, drought did not affect only crops and livestock. It deepened poverty, increased pressure within households and could force girls out of school while heightening their vulnerability to exploitation, child marriage and other harmful practices.

She argued that shelter alone was insufficient when climate disasters displaced families. Emergency responses must also guarantee safety, privacy, sanitation, healthcare and protection from sexual and gender-based violence.

“Climate change is not merely an environmental issue. It is a health issue. It is a gender equality issue. It is a development issue. It is a governance issue. And, fundamentally, it is a human rights issue,” she declared.

Ms Sekgoma said parliaments had an indispensable role in preparing countries for climate shocks through legislation, budgeting, representation and oversight.

While lawmakers could neither command droughts to end nor stop every storm, she said, they could enact protective laws, allocate resources before disasters struck, demand gender-responsive emergency plans and ensure climate funds were transparently managed.

“Parliaments cannot control when the rain falls,” she said. “But Parliaments can determine whether countries are prepared.”

She thanked the Speaker of South Africa’s National Assembly, Honourable Thoko Didiza, for bringing parliamentary leadership and democratic authority to the dialogue. She said the Speaker’s participation showed that climate resilience required political leadership, while public commitments needed both public resources and parliamentary scrutiny.

She also called for stronger partnerships between parliaments and universities, describing universities as “intellectual engine rooms” of the climate agenda.

“Legislators cannot legislate wisely in the dark,” Sekgoma said. “They need credible evidence, sound research and intellectual rigour.”

The Secretary General said the issues examined during the event resonated deeply with the work of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, particularly its Sweden-supported SRHR, HIV and AIDS Governance Project.

Through Sweden’s support, she explained, the Forum was strengthening the law-making, oversight, budgetary and representative functions of participating SADC Member Parliaments. The partnership seeks to advance universal access to health services, promote gender equality, confront gender-based violence, protect children and adolescents, and uphold the dignity of vulnerable and marginalised people.

Ms Sekgoma noted that climate change increasingly intersected with each of those priorities. Floods and droughts could weaken health infrastructure, disrupt medical supply chains, interrupt HIV treatment and prevent expectant mothers from reaching healthcare facilities.

“Climate resilience must therefore be built into our laws. It must be built into our policies. It must be built into our budgets. It must be built into our health systems. And it must be built into parliamentary oversight,” she said.

She expressed concern that only 38 countries worldwide explicitly integrated gender equality, SRHR, gender-based violence and harmful practices into their nationally determined contributions.

“Concern alone will not close the gap,” she cautioned. “Evidence must become policy. Policy must attract resources. Resources must produce services. And services must reach the people who need them; when they need them, where they need them and without discrimination.”

She called for sustained investment in climate-smart agriculture, early-warning systems, renewable energy, resilient health infrastructure and digital tools for monitoring climate-related health risks. Southern Africa, she said, could not afford to remain merely a consumer of solutions developed elsewhere, but should cultivate its own researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators.

She added that innovation had to be supported by sustainable, predictable and gender-responsive financing.

“Innovation without financing is an idea condemned to remain on paper,” she said.

She welcomed the gathering’s work towards developing recommendations for South Africa’s engagement and positioning at COP31. However, she suggested that the resulting recommendations must not be written about young people without their meaningful participation.

She urged students to question decisions, interrogate budgets, monitor commitments, organise, vote and continue pressing for access to decision-making spaces.

“Do not underestimate the power of your voice,” she told them. “Continue knocking on the doors of power until those doors remain permanently open to you.”

She insisted that the dialogue’s outcomes must survive beyond the event. The policy brief should be completed, its recommendations communicated, decision-makers engaged, and progress monitored.

“A recommendation that is drafted but never delivered changes nothing. A commitment that is made but never funded achieves nothing. A policy that is adopted but never implemented protects no one,” she said.

Ms Sekgoma reaffirmed the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s commitment to working with Sweden, national parliaments, universities, young people, civil society and other partners to advance gender-responsive climate action and safeguard SRHR throughout the region.

“No woman should lose access to healthcare because a road has disappeared beneath floodwaters. No girl should lose her future because drought has destroyed her family’s livelihood. No person living with HIV should lose access to treatment because a climate emergency has disrupted a supply chain. And no young person should inherit a crisis without also inheriting the power to help solve it,” she said.

She appealed for collective leadership and action before the next disaster struck.

“The climate is changing. Our policies must change. Our institutions must adapt. Our health systems must become resilient. And our resolve must become stronger,” Ms Sekgoma said.

• Moses Magadza is the Media and Communications Manager at the SADC Parliamentary Forum.