South Sudan

On 12 June 2023, the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) East Africa Initiative, a four-year USD 7 million collaboration between UNDRR, the World Meteorological Organization and the World Bank was launched in Kigali, Rwanda.

Through a new Risk Information Exchange (RiX) platform, UNDRR is helping to bring humanitarian and development partners together to analyse and address risk factors that would impact relief and development operations.

A new initiative to improve the understanding of climate and disaster risk in humanitarian and fragile contexts, was announced today at COP27 in Egypt at a side event organized by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

The thematic report presents the first baseline for displacement risk associated with sudden-onset disasters in the countries of the Greater Horn of Africa with the ultimate aim of reducing future displacement risk. As sudden-onset natural hazards

Members of parliament from the six-nation East African Community have vowed to step up a drive to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in their region.

Already grappling with an extended dry spell, countries in Greater Horn of Africa are bracing for an even deeper drought, with the approach of the traditional March to May rainy season offering little cause for comfort.

East African countries have reached a landmark in their efforts to curb the impact of natural and man-made hazards, by enacting regional legislation on the management and reduction of disaster risk.

Disaster risk management should be a key component of poverty reduction efforts, focusing on protecting livelihoods as well as saving lives, a major report launched today urges. The post-2015 development goals must include targets on disasters and climate change, recognising the threat they pose to the headline goal of eradicating extreme poverty, the study from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) says. “This report provides a glimpse of what we can expect to happen to the world’s poorest people if we pursue a business as usual approach to helping them prepare for disasters,” said Mr Tom Mitchell, one of the authors of ‘The geography of poverty, disasters and climate extremes in 2030’.

UNISDR Parliamentary Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction, Abdou Sané, Member of Parliament from Senegal, recently welcomed the African Union's decision to establish an African Risk Capacity Secretariat - a specialized agency of the African Union which will help elaborate a legal agreement on a pooled risk insurance facility for droughts, floods, earthquakes and cyclones.

The March to May rainfall season in the Greater Horn of Africa is likely to result in "near normal to below normal rainfall" over much of the region, according to a statement today from the 30th Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF30).