A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

3Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives120There also continues to be the possibility of moreintense examples of slow emerging conditions ofdrought and disease, exacerbated by variations inclimate, increasingly fragile natural environments,and persistent impediments to nationaldevelopment that affect human livelihoods.These concerns have provoked recognition atthe highest political levels of the pressing needto focus on regional cooperation and to allocatemore resources to risk reduction. This contexthas driven SADCC’s successor organization,the Southern African Development Community(SADC), to devote considerable attention toissues of public vulnerability, irrespective ofwhether potential disaster threats result fromclimatic hazards or conditions of poverty, andeven more recently, disease. While SADC’stechnical engagement in disaster reduction hascontinued to evolve, it is important to note thatthe overall purpose of the reconfigured regionalpolitical community is to foster the economicintegration and the promotion of peace andsecurity among its 14 member countries.SADC has taken an initiative to develop disastermanagement as a regional priority, with theestablishment of an Ad Hoc Working Group onDisaster Management in 1999. An ExtraordinarySummit for SADC Heads of State and Governmentwas convened in Maputo, Mozambiquein March 2000 to review the impactscaused by the floods across the region. At thissummit, representatives of the SADC countriesexpressed the need for improved institutionalarrangements for disaster preparednessand management of similar risks in the future.Efforts have now been initiated to developgreater cooperation within the region to reducerisk generally, and to focus more attentionspecifically on anticipating, mitigating andresponding to sudden-onset natural hazards,such as cyclone-triggered trans-boundaryfloods. Moreover, some of the national governmentsin the region are in the process ofamending their own disaster legislation to placegreater emphasis on the anticipation andreduction of natural and other related risks.In May 2000, the SADC Sub-Sectoral Committeeon Meteorology Meeting was convened. There,the Directors of National Meteorological andHydrological Services (NMHS) in the SADCcountries recommended that a regional projectbe formulated to address and strengthen thelocal capacities of national meteorological andhydrological services for early warning anddisaster preparedness. A month later, theSADC Committee of Ministers for Water recommendedthat a strategic and coordinatedapproach be developed to manage floods anddroughts within the region. These decisionsunderlined the particular importance attributedto coordination of the technical abilitiesrequired to contribute to the early warning ofnatural disasters and to ensure the effectiveimplementation of related preparedness andmitigation activities. By August 2000, theSADC Council of Ministers approved anoverarching SADC Disaster ManagementFramework for an integrated regional approachto disaster management and established a fullTechnical Steering Committee on Disaster Management.By the end of 2001, SADC had developedand approved a multi-sectoral disastermanagement strategy for the region, and theSADC Water Sector Coordination Unit had drafteda Strategy for Floods and Drought Managementin the SADC Region.The SADC’s secretariat is in Gaborone,Botswana. It is responsible for developing anintegrated disaster management strategy and forcoordinating the efforts of other SADC technicalsectors whose work directly relates to disasterreduction. Several of SADC’s key technicalunits play critical roles in disaster reduction.The SADC Food, Agriculture and NaturalResources (FANR) sector gives specific attentionto the protection of regional food security.Its Regional Early Warning Unit (REWU) providesmember states and the international communitywith advance information on foodsecurity prospects in the region. This includesproviding information about food crop performance,alerts of possible crop failure andother factors affecting food supplies.The unit also conducts assessments coveringfood supply and demand, and makes projectionson related matters such as food importsand exports, the identification of areas oraffected populations threatened by food insecurity,as well as threatening climate conditionsthat could trigger food insecurity. The FAOhas long supported FANR with, among otherinformation, data from its Global InformationEarly Warning System (GIEWS).