COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING OF THE IGAD DROUGHT DISASTER RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE (IDDRSI)

ENTEBBE, UGANDA, 11 MAY 2018 The partners of IDDRSI, including Member States, IGAD Secretariat, Development Partners, UN agencies, Civil Society Organisations and members of the private sector actors, committed to ending drought emergencies in the Horn of Africa, held the 5th IDDRSI Platform General Assembly meeting on 11th May 2018 at the Laico Lake Victoria Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda.

The meeting was opened and chaired by Hon. Musa Ecweru, Minister of State for Relief and Disaster Preparedness, of the Republic of Uganda.

Also in attendance were H.E. Gabriel Negatu, Director General of the African Development Bank; H.E. Myra Benardi, Head of the Agriculture Section of the European Union; Amb (Eng.) Mahboub M. Maalim, Executive Secretary of IGAD; and representatives of Germany, Switzerland, European Union, UN Agencies and Civil Society Organisations, as well as Members of the IGAD Committee of Ambassadors and IGAD Partners’ Forum.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Livestock, Forestry and Range of the Federal Government of Somalia, the Government of Ethiopia, represented by the Ambassador of Ethiopia to Uganda, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of South Sudan, the Ministry of Devolution and Arid and Semi Arid Lands of the Republic of Kenya; the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, Livestock and Marine Resources of the Republic of Djibouti; the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Sudan; and the Ministry for Relief, Disaster Preparedness, Management and Refugees of the Republic of Uganda.

The objective of the meeting was to review the progress made in the drought resilience initiative during the past five years and consider proposals for visioning a transformational agenda for the next five years.

Recalling: The Declaration of the Joint Nairobi Summit on “ending drought emergencies in the Horn of Africa” held in September 2011, which made the decision to embark on the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI); and charged the IGAD Secretariat with the responsibility to lead and coordinate the implementation of the decisions;

Appreciating: The progress made in the last five years since the establishment of IDDRSI and the renewed commitment of IGAD Member States and Development Partners to end drought emergencies in the Horn of Africa region;

Noting: That building resilience in the region is a long, challenging journey steadily being undertaken at sub-national, national and regional levels and requiring multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder involvement;

Recognizing and appreciating: The role of the IGAD Secretariat in pioneering efforts in building resilience through improved coordination, information, response and research, which have spread to other parts of the African continent including the SAHEL and the Great Lakes regions;

Now the Ministers, Development Partners and other stakeholders present, do hereby adopt the following communiqué:

Reaffirm the recommendation to expand the cross-border initiatives to include all forms of cross border cooperation approaches taking into account and benefiting from African Union Convention on Cross-border Cooperation (the Niamey Convention) in all cross-border areas of the IGAD region;

Instruct the IGAD Secretariat to follow up with Member States to address pending issues to ensure full operationalization of the IGAD Cross Border Development Facilitation Unit based in Moroto, Uganda;

Recognize the preparatory groundwork started to develop infrastructure and increase investment in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of the region;

Call on IDDRSI Platform Members to employ measures and approaches that will enable effective measurement of collective outcomes through the adoption and implementation of Resilience Measurement and Knowledge Management for informed decision making and investment;

Further call on the Platform Members to work with Member States to actively design strategies to address the bottlenecks that impede the effective implementation of IDDRSI;

Urge Member States, Development Partners and the IGAD Secretariat to allocate sufficient resources to support the staff and activities of the Platform Coordination Unit;

Appreciate the pioneering efforts of the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Union, Switzerland and other critical partners that inspired other Development Partners to support IDDRSI;

Appeal to all development partners to continue and increase their support to IDDRSI and recommend to Member States and the IGAD Secretariat, the diversification of resource mobilization that go beyond traditional Development Partners to include domestic sources, nontraditional partners and the private sector;

Recall the recommendation made by the 4th PSC Meeting held in Khartoum to establish the Gender and Resilience Working Group and Communities of Practice for strengthening gender mainstreaming in IDDRSI; Recall the Kampala Convention in recognition of the neglected plight of the internally displaced persons;

Recommend the IGAD protocol on free movement of persons to include trade in goods and services, and support the development of the IGAD Protocol on transhumance by ensuring safe access of pastoralists to corridors of pasture, water and basic social services;

Endorse the roadmap for the revision of the IDDRSI Programming Framework Documents, paying special attention to global frameworks, such as the Global Compact for Migration, the Global Compact on Refugees and the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework;

In conclusion,

Acknowledge the remarkable results achieved so far, and envisage much more to be done differently and innovatively to guarantee the achievement of the goals of IDDRSI;

Agree that the recommendations of the 8th Platform Steering Committee meeting are adopted by the 5th meeting of the IGAD Platform General Assembly;

Appreciate the efforts of the IGAD Secretariat to organize a successful 8 th Platform Steering Committee meeting are adopted by the 5th meeting of the IGAD Platform General Assembly; and Thank the Government and the People of the Republic of Uganda for hosting the meetings the IDDRSI Platform Steering Committee and General Assembly and for their warm hospitality and excellent facilitation; Remain committed and mobilized for the implementation of IDDRSI. Done at Entebbe,

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