Africa remains the region with the largest number of Least Developed Countries, yet it continues to \u201cface challenges in addressing the growing complexity and intensity of disaster risks,\u201d says Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Kamal Kishore.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Agenda 2063 depends on incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into development plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to view Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as a core issue to secure development gains,\u201d said Kishore during the press conference following the official opening of the 9th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (AfRP-9).<\/p>\n
The Special Representative believes that most disasters today are manmade and urges for resilience building and investment in DRR. \u201cLet us remove the notion of natural disasters and recognize them as manmade,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cthere is nothing natural about disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there is an impending drought, we must avoid water-intensive crops and instead plant water-efficient crops to maximize production,\u201d Kishore said, adding, \u201cIt is not the rainfall that causes the disaster; it is the human interaction with rainfall that results in a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201ctend to stall economic development and divert precious resources from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2018Africa Programme of Action\u2019 to guide its implementation by 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also the region that prioritized strengthening early warning systems, even before the launch of the United Nations \u2018Early Warnings for All\u2019 initiative,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
According to Kishore, Africa has led the way in developing new disaster risk reduction strategies, policies, and legislation. \u201cThe 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,\u201d he added. Under Agenda 2063, there is a call under the theme \u201cAct Now for the Resilient Africa We Want.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2014both public and private\u2014so that they reduce rather than create risk.<\/p>\n
He appealed to the media to highlight success stories of instances where systems in place have successfully averted disasters.<\/p>\n
The post Incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction into the development agenda is key to building resilience<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction into the development agenda is key to building resilience<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Africa remains the region with the largest number of Least Developed Countries, yet it continues to \u201cface challenges in addressing the growing complexity and intensity of disaster risks,\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}