Real Risk

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EADS OF

TATE

and Government of the African Union

(AU) have recognized the need for a comprehensive strat-

egy to prevent and manage disaster-related crises, within

the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development

(NEPAD).

In its review of disaster-related crisis, the AU/NEPAD secre-

tariat noted that although some national disaster risk reduction

(DRR) plans make provisions for financing their operations, in

practice, most of those in Africa suffer from inadequate financial

support. Moreover, in some countries, donors provide the bulk of

financial resources but find it difficult to meet financing require-

ments for DRR.

The secretariat therefore established the African Regional

Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, comprising the AU

Commission (AUC), NEPAD secretariat and all regional economic

communities under the chairmanship of AUC, with support from

the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

(UN/ISDR). The group will work toward integrating DRR into all

phases of development in Africa.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) produced

a report on subregional strategies for preventing and managing

disaster-related food crises. Many types of disasters can cause

such crises. However, between 1975 and 2000, drought affected

more people than any other disaster and it affects Africa every

year.

3, 4

UNECA’s focus is on developing an African comprehensive

long-term drought impact reduction strategy (ACLDIRS) through

mainstreaming drought risk reduction into agricultural and overall

sustainable development. The strategy is biased towards prepared-

ness, mitigation and risk management rather than crisis

management. It is consistent with the Hyogo Framework for

Action and with the Millennium Development Declaration, and

is conceived to accelerate and contribute to realizing the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The spread of drought-related food crisis across Africa and

the expanse of population affected by food emergencies,

malnourishment and chronic hunger provide opportunities to

African governments, business communities and civil society

groups to strive for leadership and work in partnership, jointly

contributing to broad-based economic growth with food secu-

rity, poverty reduction, equity and better environmental

management.

The capacity of vulnerable populations must be harnessed to

minimize the negative consequences of risk and exploit the poten-

tial born out of agriculture-related drought, estimated at over

USD24 billion, which is currently exploited by non-African orga-

nizations.

The goal is to give meaningful content to the vision of Africa as

a group of nations networked into a unified continental economy,

to help it achieve economies of regional scale. This should lead

to the structural transformation of African economies to help

capture a larger share of global wealth generated from Africa’s

own production capacity, especially in the agricultural sector, and

to achieve an equitable distribution of regional wealth across

African communities.

African governments have always expressed commitment to

preventing and managing disaster-related crisis. However, commit-

ments have often taken the form of overlapping governmental

and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the adoption

of inefficient policies and strategies at national, subregional,

regional or international levels.

Throughout the continent, efforts geared towards minimizing

vulnerabilities and disaster risks to prevent, mitigate and prepare

for the adverse impacts of disasters within the broad context of

sustainable development are limited. Indeed, interventions are

biased towards relief operations despite the fact that African

governments and their partners recognize that disaster planning

and proactive mitigation programmes are the best option.

For every dollar spent on prevention and preparedness,

between USD100 and USD1,000 are required for an equivalent

effect after a disaster. In addition, interventions are too often

dependent on foreign aid and resources. There is a need to shift

from relief operation to a forward-looking strategy to reduce

vulnerability and improve resilience to all types of natural hazard,

including the drought-related disasters and agricultural droughts

that made Africa a net importer of commercial food grain, a recip-

ient of food aid and a famine continent.

African agriculture is highly dependent on the weather, and

agricultural drought takes a heavy toll on farm families, the envi-

ronment, and other areas. Considerable efforts have been made

in the Sahelian subregion to minimize drought-related losses, but

the drought events of 2005 in Niger showed the weakness of the

mechanism.

In 2002, agricultural imports reached USD22 billion while

annual food aid demand reached USD1.7 billion. African agri-

cultural trade accounted for only 4 per cent of the world total,

with the continent representing 13 per cent of the world popu-

lation.

Against this background, UNECA advocates an African

comprehensive long-term drought impact reduction strategy.

Defining drought

Drought occurs in virtually all climatic zones, but its character-

istics vary significantly between regions. It is a temporary

aberration; it differs from aridity, which is a permanent climatic

Subregional strategies for preventing and

managing disaster-related food crisis

Abdoulaye Niang, Jean Luc Mastaki and Meheret H/Selassie, UN Economic Commission for Africa