Kenya

Over 10 million people from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda will be severely affected by severe drought, with no likelihood of improvement until 2012, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of humanitarian Affairs warned in an alert yesterday.

This inventory is an attempt to pull together the threads and to identify what does and what does not work in relation to legal, institutional and planning frameworks for disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Africa. It aims to further support the

Several high-level African delegates will attend the inaugural meeting of the Reconstituted African Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction in Nairobi, Kenya from 29 - 31 March 2011. The meeting follows the endorsement of the Report of the Second African Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction by the Executive Council of the African Union. This inaugural meeting will agree on the Terms of Reference of the Group as well as the Africa position paper to be presented during the Third Session of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction in May 2011.

In a part of the world struggling with climate-related hazards such as drought and flood, experts are meeting to discuss ways for Africa to cope with disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Addressing participants at the opening of the International Conference on Community-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, Abbas Gullet, Secretary-General of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said that climate-related hazards had far-reaching impacts on the Kenyan economy.

Kisumu, Kenya – Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya will join the UNISDR-led campaign “Making Cities Resilient -- My city is getting ready!” at a ceremony on 8 December, adding to the list of over 150 other municipalities worldwide. Kisumu is the leading communication and trading centre for countries of the Great Lakes Region that includes Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Like many cities in Africa, Kisumu is vulnerable to risks brought by climate change, which coupled with rapid urban growth, will pose mounting challenges for the local government as it seeks to protect citizens from disaster.

Investors in partnership with UNISDR held an Entrepreneurial Finance Seminar on 25 October to provide Kenyan entrepreneurs with training on capital formation options in the over-the-counter market in the United States. > View full story

Nairobi is one of the latest cities to join the World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making Cities Resilient - My city is getting ready!” The signing in ceremony was led by Pedro Basabe, Head of the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa and it took place on 13 October during the celebration of International Day for Disaster Reduction at the Korogocho informal settlements. > View full story

Tackling urban risk is everybody's business -- from national to local governments, community groups, professional associations and the international community -- and will help reduce poverty, said an UNISDR official today at the global launch of the World Disasters Report 2010 in Nairobi, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The report’s focus on urban risk coincides with the theme of the World Disaster Reduction Campaign "Making cities resilient- My city is getting ready!", which was launched by UNISDR and partners last May in Bonn, Germany.

This publication is a compilation of good practices and lessons learned on early warning systems at different scales. Covered are natural hazards such as wildland fire, drought, floods, tsunami and extreme weather events. It highlights the importance of

On 25 to 26 August, the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa is holding a pilot workshop on “Training of Trainers” in the Rift Valley Province to test a toolkit to “train trainers” in disaster risk reduction. “The outcome of this training will create a super highway for spreading hazard and disaster risk reduction information to local communities, thereby increasing their knowledgebase and consequently their resilience to natural disasters,” said Pedro Basabe, Head of the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa. Expected to attend are 30 Disaster Risk Reduction platform members from the provinces, and five regional participants from Burundi, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Kenya. > View full story