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

3Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiativesSource: Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme, University of Cape TownAfricaCase: South AfricaA methodical, if protracted, effort to develop acomprehensive national strategy for disasterrisk management has been pursued in SouthAfrica by reforming organizational structuresand creating new legislation concerning disasterrisk management. As so often happens, itwas after a severe crisis – flooding in the CapeFlats in 1994 – that the government resolvedto assess South Africa’s ability to deal with disasterrisk management. This initially involveda complete review of disaster managementstructures and policies. A year later, the cabinetrecommended that a formal structure for disastermanagement be established. An initialNational Disaster Management Committeewas formed in 1996 with the intended functionof coordinating and managing national disastermanagement policy. As that body never cameinto its own right, by mid-1997 the governmentapproved the formation of an alternateInter-Ministerial Committee for DisasterManagement (IMC).At this stage, a decision was taken to producea Green Paper on Disaster Managementfor all levels of government (national,provincial and local) as the first tangiblestep to establish a formal disaster managementpolicy for the country. It was tabled inFebruary 1998 with the aim to ensure that acomprehensive disaster management systemcould be realized and implemented bymeans of a national strategy that would bemore fully elaborated in a subsequent policyWhite Paper on Disaster Management. TheGreen Paper provided an important conceptualframework for disaster managementand risk reduction. A year later in January1999, the White Paper was able to build onthese views by emphasizing the risk and disasterreduction issues highlighted by theinternational and regional trends at the time.The White Paper was developed within theframework of the IDNDR, and importancealso was given to developing joint standardsand common practices among the other 13countries of the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity (SADC).96