UNDRR News

Disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa are increasing in frequency, severity and impacts, and the continent’s rapid urban growth means that risk-sensitive development is crucial, according to participants at an international conference.

Without addressing the growing levels of disaster and climate risk, the Government of Uganda fears that 43% of the population could regress into poverty.

Delegates from over 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa along with development partners, academics and civil society are meeting at the launch of the Understanding Risk and Finance Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Residents of a flood-prone community in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé are deploying local knowledge to curb the risk of disasters and epidemics by tackling the trash that blocks drainage ditches.

Farmers in northwestern Cameroon are deploying traditional knowledge to boost the survival of their crops, thereby curbing the risk of disasters posed by increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.

The Government of Uganda is training its military and police officers in disaster preparedness in anticipation of the effects of El Niño-enhanced rains over the mid-September 2015 to January 2016 period.

MAPUTO, 7 September 2015 – African leaders and experts on disaster risk are moving ahead on detailed planning of implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the new global agreement on reducing disaster losses and a key pillar of the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Improved access to insurance can boost the resilience of vulnerable communities to recurrent disasters such as droughts and floods in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Government of Kenya and its partners are engaging to create an enabling environment for implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year global plan to curb deaths and economic losses caused by natural and man-made hazards.

Recovering from floods that killed dozens of people and displaced thousands in June and July, Cameroon is working to rein in risk in its fast-growing urban centres.