BUILDING THE RESILIENCE OF NATIONS AND COMMUNITIES TO DISASTERS IN AFRICA Martin Owor Head of Disaster Prevention Division Office of The Prime Minister The Republic Of Uganda [e-mail]

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BUILDING THE RESILIENCE OF NATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES TO DISASTERS IN AFRICAMartin
OworHead of Disaster Prevention DivisionOffice
of The Prime MinisterThe Republic Of
Ugandamowor_at_opm.go.ug

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Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Africa

• Africa is very vulnerable to the impact of
  disasters. With the exception of the
  unprecedented tsunami of 26th Dec 2004, in
  Indonesia, Africa is the only continent where the
  impact of disasters have increased in the last
  decade. The increased impact of disasters is a
  major impediment for African countries to
  achieving Poverty Reduction and the Millennium
  Development Goals.
• During the preparation of the WCDR, AU/NEPAD
  and ADB jointly studied the disaster situation in
  Africa, with support of UN/ISDR Africa, and
  working under the aegis of the Africa Working
  Group of the UN/IATF developed, based on the
  study findings, three major outcomes
• The Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk
  Reduction
• Guidelines for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk
  Assessment into Development
• A Plan of Action for implementation of the Africa
  Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction

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Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Africa

• The Africa Regional Strategy for DRR aims to
• Increase political commitment to DRR
• Improve identification and assessment of disaster
  risks
• Enhance knowledge management for DRR
• Increase Public Awareness of DRR
• Improve governance of DRR institutions
• Integrate DRR into emergency response management.
  

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Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa

• The Guidelines for Mainstreaming Disaster
  Assessment into Development, provide
• 1). key principles for mainstreaming disaster
  risk reduction into development themes and
  sectors, including poverty reduction,
  agriculture, environment management, water
  resource management, land use planning,
  infrastructure development, gender issues,
  HIV/AIDS and other health Issues and climate
  change adaptation.
• The Governments of Uganda and Madagascar are
  in the process of developing national guidelines
  using the AU model, to suite the local
  institutional and planning arrangements.

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Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa

• The Guidelines for Mainstreaming Disaster
  Assessment into Development, provide
• 2). key guiding principles and questions for
  governance and institutional aspects for DRR,
  risk identification, knowledge management, risk
  management applications, integrating disaster
  risk reduction into development plans, themes and
  sectors, preparedness and emergency management

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Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa

• The Plan of Action developed for the
  implementation of the regional strategy, uses the
  guidelines as a tool.
• The plan of action focuses on activities
  underlining the strategic directions of the six
  objectives set by the Africa Regional Strategy on
  DRR. (see the strategy for details of strategic
  directions).
• The Plan of Action is for a period of five years
  and it is in line with the five thematic
  priorities of the WCDR.
• The plan of Action is being implemented at
  national, sub-regional and regional levels by the
  joint efforts of the National Governments and
  their development partners and with support of
  the International Community.  

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Actions in Implementing the HFA in Africa

• To adapt the HFA to Africa, AU has taken the
  lead and
• identified six areas for
  action as priorities for implementation
• of the HFA
• Increasing Governments commitment to disaster
  reduction (HFA-PA 14)
• Integration of the African Regional Stratify for
  Disaster Risk Reduction into development planning
  (Crosscuts all HFA- Priority Actions)
• Development of policy, legislation and
  institutional framework for disaster risk
  reduction (HFA-PA 15)
• Enhancing country capacity for disaster risk
  assessment (HFA-PA 2)
• Enhancing access to space-based technology for
  information necessary for mapping and forecasting
  natural and related hazards and vulnerabilities
  (HFA-PA 5)
• Inclusion of disasters risk reduction knowledge
  in school curricula (HFA-PA 3).

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Actions in Implementing the HFA in Africa

• To implement the HFA in Africa, at the
  regional, sub-regional
• and national levels, the
  following activities are already being
• undertaken
• An Africa Regional Forum of National Platform
  Focal Points has been created and agreed to meet
  twice a year at regional level to share
  information,experiences and discuss HFA
  implementation strategies at national levels.
• ADB is in consultation with UN/ISDR Africa on how
  to implement the Africa Strategy for DRR and how
  to increase the capacity of its staff for
  mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into
  development activities.
• ECOWAS is starting to address disaster risk
  reduction, focusing on strategy, policy and legal
  frameworks development.
• IGAD is planning to facilitate capacity building
  of national governments for DRR in line with the
  HFA priorities.

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Actions in Implementing the HFA in Africa

• An Africa Advisory Group (AAG) on DRR has been
  established, and has identified concrete regional
  areas of priorities to take up with the RECs and
  the AU Summits, in implementing the
  recommendations of HFA.
• Higher Level Advocacy has been carried out by the
  joint efforts of Africa Advisory Group, UN/ISDR
  Africa and National Platforms, requesting five
  Presidents to bring DRR to the July AU Summit
  Agenda. Two Presidents held direct discussions
  with UN/ISDR Africa on how to follow implement
  the HFA.
• We are grateful to the Republic of Madagascar
  and The Peoples Republic of China for making a
  20,000 and 200,000 contribution respectively
  towards DRR activities in Africa.
• More countries have requested for support to
  develop their national platforms for
  mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into their
  national development plans and programmes.

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Main Constraints in Achieving the Five
Priorities Underlined in the HFA

• The main constraints in implementing the
  HFA are
• Lack of capacity for mainstreaming disaster risk
  reduction at national and community levels
• Lack of seed money for carrying out Africa Plan
  of Action which aims at implementation of Africa
  Regional Strategy on DRR which was developed in
  line of the five areas of priorities of HFA
• Limited capacity and knowledge of disaster risk
  reduction by most UN Country Offices.

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Recommendations from Africa

• To mainstream disaster risk reduction
  for sustainable development, Africa
• requests the UN System, and the
  USG, to consider doing the following
• Introduce and mainstream DRR into the GA and
  ECOSOC agendas, because sustainable
  socio-economic development can not be achieved
  without addressing DRR
• Increase the understanding of and commitment to
  DRR among the heads of UN Agencies and heads of
  UNDP Country Offices
• Make the DRR an integral part of all development
  policy-oriented documents such as UNDAF and PRSP
  and a requirement for all development programmes
• Increase the capacity of UN Country Offices in
  DRR so that they are in a position to support
  national processes for mainstreaming disaster
  risk reduction into development policies and
  programmes
• Increase the capacity of UN ISDR regional
  presence in Africa, Asia and Latin America and UN
  ISDR capacity to guide National Governments in
  DRR for sustainable development
• Call on other African Countries and the
  Development Partners to emulate the support to
  DRR activities in Africa by the the Republic of
  Madagascar and the Peoples Republic of China.

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A PRESENTATION ON THE FOLLOW UP OF THE HFA AT
THE ECOSOC BY THE AFRICA UNIONTHANK YOU