Africa Biennial Report Expected to be a Barometer on Africa’s performance in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

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September 20, 2022

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) data collection workshop on the development of the 2^nd Africa Biennial report on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) took place from 12-13 September 2022 in Maputo, Mozambique. This is the last workshop in series. Three similar workshops were held for ECOWAS, ECCAS/UMA, and EAC/IGAD member states in June, July and August respectively. The SADC workshop brought together DRR experts from the SADC Member States and the SADC Secretariat, and other relevant stakeholders in the region, including members of the Africa Science and Technology Advisory Group on DRR (AfSTAG-DRR) and Youth Advisory Board on DRR (AYAB-DRR) – both of which are established by the African Union Commission to enhance youth participation in decision making as well as ensuring science-based decision making.

The Africa Biennial Report aims to track progress on the implementation of the Programme of Action (PoA) for the Implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 in Africa.

Gina Sithembiso, Senior Programme Officer at the SADC DRR Unit hailed the workshop for bringing the SADC DRR community together. She commended the AUC for leading the development of the reporting, citing that the 1^st Biennial Report has been a key reference document for the DRR work in the region. She emphasized that information on the risk profile at continental level, SADC and member states, which were sourced from the INFORM Risk Index was very helpful. However, she underscored the need to do more on disaster loss data. “As the SADC region, we hope that there will be more reporting on loss and damages. The operationalisation of the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre-SHOC-will greatly aid in this”.

The African Union Commission (AUC) DRR Technical Coordinator, Gatkuoth Kai noted the important role being demonstrated by the Republic of Mozambique, in particular, H.E. President Felipe Jacinto Nyusi as the African Union Champion for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in the implementation of the DRR Agenda in the region and on the Continent. Recently at the SADC Ministerial Meeting on Integrated Early Warning and Early Action, the H.E. President Felipe outlined his agenda, as the African Union Champion for DRM, for the next three years. One of the key activities he will undertake is the popularisation of the outcomes of the 2^nd biennial report. The Coordinator also outlined the next steps after the conclusion of the workshop. He urged the participants to be on the lookout for the zero draft report, which will be shared with them for inputs. Following the inputs by member states, the AUC will convene a validation workshop of the 2^nd Biennial Report. Concluding his remarks, Mr. Kai underscored that the biennial report will inform programming and will be vital in mobilising political will towards DRR on the Continent.

The Republic of Mozambique was represented by H.E. Ms. Luísa Celma Caetano Meque, the President of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), who pointed out that the country was working hard by designing programmes aimed at resilience building. One of these included the national plan for DRR that was adopted in 2017. In 2020, the Mozambican Parliament passed a law on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with focus on IDPs displaced by disasters. The law is key to ensuring the needs of the IDPs are addressed. H.E. Ms. Celma cited the upcoming report as a barometer on the performance of Africa in reducing the disaster risk.

Over the two days of discussions, there was a call that to facilitate disaster reporting, there is a need to put in place mechanisms that would make it easier for Member States to facilitate entry of sectoral data to the existing national, regional and global reporting systems. During the session, member states discussed challenges, best practices and opportunities in the implementation of the DRR programmes. Member States underlined that there was limited engagement by AUC at national levels to build capacity for data collection and reporting on progress on the PoA. Other challenges highlighted included limited institutional capacity for data collection. However, there was also important progress made by the Member States, despite the challenges. Many countries made progress in establishing early warning systems, mainstreaming of DRR in development programmes, and development of policies and legal frameworks. Member States highlighted that COVID-19 provided greater opportunity to review their legislations and operationalisation of some of the Disaster Management mechanisms that were made operational due to COVID-19. AUC and SADC were urged to seize the challenges in data collection to develop a comprehensive multi-year capacity building programme in the Member States.

The SADC Member States that attended the workshop included Malawi, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Angola, Madagascar, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. With the conclusion of the regional workshop, the next step are drafting of the report, validation of the report and its launch by H.E. President Filipe Nyusi, the AU DRM Champion.

The development of the biennial report is supported by the European Union through Intra-ACP 11^th European Development Fund (EDF) Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Programme, and also by the Kingdom of Sweden through UNDP within the framework of the Sahel Resilience Project.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Gatkuoth Kai| Technical Coordinator for Disaster Risk Reduction| Directorate of Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy, Department for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment | E-mail: KaiG@africa-union.org | WhatsApp: +251 909537884

For media enquiry:

Mr. Molalet Tsedeke, Information and Communications Directorate | African Union Commission|+251-911-630 631; Molalett@africa-union.org

Ms. Maryanne Muriuki, Communication Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction Unit, Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, AU Commission. Email: MuriukiM@africa-union.org