UNDRR News

A record attendance is expected for this week’s 5th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which opens today in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Some 700 politicians, disaster managers and civil society representatives from across Africa are registered to attend on May 13-17 and will review the continent’s progress in disaster risk management.

UNISDR today welcomed the outcome of East Africa’s Second Drought Resilience Summit as an important contribution to next month’s Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and preparing for a future in which climate change will amplify existing stress on water availability in Africa.

Experts from all over Africa, including government ministers, will meet in Abuja, Nigeria, 13-16 May 2014, to discuss the challenges that the warming continent is experiencing because of climate change and other risk drivers. Last year, 37 countries in the region experienced at least one major disaster event including droughts, floods and heat waves, affecting millions.

The Prime Minister of Senegal has reiterated her country’s commitment to implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) during high level talks with the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. Prime Minister Aminata Touré said that Senegal’s international commitments were consistent with domestic priorities under the country’s Economic and Social Development Plan. In the presence of nine of her key ministers, the Prime Minister told Special Representative Ms Margareta Wahlström that good governance and institutions were crucial to build resilience in the face of continued climate change.

Herders whose livestock was devastated by a cyclone are taking steps to reduce their vulnerability and exposure to future disasters. A combination of freakish freezing temperatures, high winds and severe floods after a cyclone in November in Puntland, Somalia, hit several communities hard. Dozens of people died and up to one million livestock were wiped out, according to a post-cyclone operations update from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In the wake of the disaster some herders have sought to reduce their disaster risk by finding areas that afford better protection from extreme weather events for themselves and their livestock.

ABUJA, June 12 - The Nigerian government has requested the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) to facilitate the development of a comprehensive disaster risk management plan for Africa’s most populous country.

Africa's infrastructure is under pressure from increasing disasters but the infrastructure deficit is an opportunity for the continent to take a global lead on sustainable development and to leap-frog environmentally unfriendly technologies, said Mrs. Rhoda Peace, the Africa Union Commissioner for rural economy and agriculture, at a seminar marking the 11th African Day for the Environment hosted by the Tunisian government.

The 4th Africa Regional Platform concluded today with a detailed set of commitments and recommendations on the complex challenges Africa faces due to surging economic growth, rapid urbanization, climate change and a wide range of natural hazards.

Risks that have historically played out in rural areas like drought, floods and wildfires "are being transferred and transformed and expressed differently across Africa's fast growing cities and towns," said Dr. Ailsa Holloway in her keynote address to the 4th Africa Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction today.

Ethiopia is on course to build Africa's most comprehensive risk profile database by 2015 and today urged other countries on the continent to follow its example.