The 9th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction concluded with the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration.
The declaration which was penned in the Namibian capital Windhoek is aimed at advancing the Programme of Action for the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 in Africa.
The ambitious declaration put together during the meeting that brought together 800 participants from across the country, drawn from the civil society, International Organizations and Member States, addressed key issues including; risk governance, financing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and the impacts of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon on disaster risk in Southern Africa.
The Windhoek Declaration sets the direction for the next three years, reinforcing Africa’s commitment to reducing disaster risks and building resilience across the continent and addresses the key challenges the continent is facing in building resilience, calling on Member States to increase budgetary allocation and establish innovative financing solutions, with support from regional and international partners to access funding. Among sources of funding include the loss and damages fund which saw the establishment of a commission, and to also utilize the Eary Warning for All initiative.
The Declaration also reiterates the call for inclusivity especially in legislations and policies as well as through better national systems for gathering disaggregated data while mainstreaming DRR in development programmes and aligned DRR strategies with sustainable development and climate resilience policies, ensuring coherent and comprehensive approaches across all levels of governance as climate-related disasters continue to grow.
In their Outcome Statement, members of parliaments who attended the 9th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction committed to advance disaster risk reduction at regional level and in their respective countries.
The outcomes of this Regional Platform will feed into the upcoming UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries that is slated to take place in Gaborone in December 2024 and in the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, to be held in June 2025 in Geneva, where Africa’s common position will help shape the global agenda.
The Platform, hosted by the Government of Namibia under the theme “Act Now for the Resilient Africa We Want,” took place amidst one of the most severe droughts in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, affecting 58 million people.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction came into effect in 2015 following the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR), replacing the Hyogo Framework for Action. It runs until 2030 and has seven targets and four priorities for action.
The Sendai Framework is a 15-year, voluntary, nonbinding agreement that recognizes that the State has the primary role in reducing disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders, including local government, the private sector, and others.
The four priority areas include: Understanding disaster risk; Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The seven global targets include: substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower the average per 100,000 global mortality rate in the decade 2020 to 2030 compared to the period 2005 to 2015; Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, aiming to lower average global figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020 to 2030 as compared to the period 2005 to 2015; Reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030; Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among them health and educational facilities, including through developing their resilience by 2030; Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020; Substantially enhance international cooperation to developing countries through adequate and substantial support to complement their national actions for implementation of this Framework by 2030; and Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030.
