Africa remains the region with the largest number of Least Developed Countries, yet it continues to “face challenges in addressing the growing complexity and intensity of disaster risks,” says Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Kamal Kishore.
He states that many of these risks are driven by the climate crisis and emphasizes that the success of achieving the envisioned Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 depends on incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into development plans.
“It is important to view Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as a core issue to secure development gains,” said Kishore during the press conference following the official opening of the 9th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (AfRP-9).
The Special Representative believes that most disasters today are manmade and urges for resilience building and investment in DRR. “Let us remove the notion of natural disasters and recognize them as manmade,” he said, adding, “there is nothing natural about disasters.”
He notes that when early warning information is issued for an impending disaster, there is a need for anticipatory action to mitigate the associated impacts. For instance, when disasters such as cyclones are forecasted, it is crucial to relocate vulnerable populations to safety to reduce loss of lives and livelihoods.
“When there is an impending drought, we must avoid water-intensive crops and instead plant water-efficient crops to maximize production,” Kishore said, adding, “It is not the rainfall that causes the disaster; it is the human interaction with rainfall that results in a disaster.”
African countries, he states, are forced to spend up to 9% of their national budgets to respond to and recover from extreme weather events. He notes that such costs “tend to stall economic development and divert precious resources from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Special Representative asserts that not all is lost on the continent, as Africa has made significant strides in building a resilient future. The continent was the first region to internalize the Sendai Framework by adopting the ‘Africa Programme of Action’ to guide its implementation by 2030.
“It is also the region that prioritized strengthening early warning systems, even before the launch of the United Nations ‘Early Warnings for All’ initiative,” he said, calling for a moment of inflection by implementing the Sendai Framework, which emphasizes a shift from merely responding to disasters to proactively preventing them.
According to Kishore, Africa has led the way in developing new disaster risk reduction strategies, policies, and legislation. “The region has also made investments to strengthen forecasting and risk information systems to improve early and anticipatory action, from the continental to the regional and national levels,” he added. Under Agenda 2063, there is a call under the theme “Act Now for the Resilient Africa We Want.”
Through the exchange of good practices, lessons learned, and new ideas for building resilience, Kishore believes we can mitigate the impacts of disasters on people and livelihoods. He suggests that this can be achieved by addressing endemic problems, such as food insecurity and environmental degradation; building the resilience of infrastructure and social services to stimulate economic growth and sustainable development; tackling the challenges of urbanization so that it becomes a driver of resilience rather than risk; and guiding investments—both public and private—so that they reduce rather than create risk.
He appealed to the media to highlight success stories of instances where systems in place have successfully averted disasters.
