AFRICA: Improve coordination, funding for disaster risk reduction, governments urged

Photo: Andrew Heavens

Flooding in Sudan: Delegates at the second Africa meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction urged governments to improve funding for DRR activities - file photo

NAIROBI, 12 May 2009 (IRIN) - Better coordination between countries and aid agencies is necessary to improve preparedness and response to local and trans-boundary disasters, delegates at the second Africa meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), held in Nairobi, said.

They also challenged governments to improve funding for DRR activities.

"Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are affected by similar hazards such as army worms and flooding, but each country has its own preparedness and response plans," said Mary Mye-Kamara, Sierra Leone's disaster management department director.

"There is a lack of cross-border information sharing, yet this would form a good base for regional planning," she added. "A coordinated response between the countries would be more effective."

Southern African lessons

Kelly David, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in southern Africa, said the region had improved disaster management and reduced the gap between governments and NGOs.

Before the 2008 flooding/cyclone season, David said, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met to discuss lessons learned in flood management, and launched a joint appeal and response plan for four countries most affected by the Zambezi floods.

"In 2007, weeks were spent trying to determine the scale and scope of disaster. Now it is easier to have faster response in countries like Malawi and Zambia," she said. "The number of deaths has also reduced."

Despite this, improved assessments and baseline data are required to address the compounded nature of vulnerability as hazards in the region occur against a background of poverty, migration, structural problems and epidemics such as cholera.

Delegates to the meeting, organised by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, which ended on 7 May, said increased budgets for DRR activities would be a success indicator.

Photo: George Mulala/IRIN

A plane drops food in an area cut off by floods: Better coordination between countries and aid agencies is necessary to improve preparedness and response to local and trans-boundary disasters - file photo

Benoit Collin of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office, called for more linkages between development and humanitarian action as choices made immediately after disasters affect long-term recovery. "Humanitarian action alone cannot be the solution," Benoit said. "Response to disasters creates good opportunities for DRR, enabling building back better."

He noted, however, that often there was low-level replication and scaling-up of pilot programmes as well as a lack of effective dissemination of lessons learned.

Adapting programmes

Nancy Balfour of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent said disaster preparedness should be strengthened at the community, national, regional and global levels.

Relevant preparedness models were also required; Balfour said, noting that most were for rapid-onset disasters. "These should be adapted to predominantly slow-onset and food insecurity disaster patterns," she said. In the last six years the Horn of Africa region has experienced three major droughts.

According to Francis Muraya of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, weaker economies often lagged behind in DRR due to resource constraints. The Facility helps vulnerable countries incorporate DRR into development strategies and funds disaster recovery in low-income countries.

"Disasters are not a sexy subject, often they come after everything else," said Muraya. "But they should be considered as development issues... as they can wipe out investments in a day."

aw/eo/mw