IGAD to Build Resilience to Disasters through Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation

08-02-2017, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Disaster Risk Management Technical Advisory Committee (DRM TAC) and Representatives of the National Meteorological and Hydro Metrological services of the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) member countries this morning inaugurated a TAC meeting in Addis Ababa in order to launch a project titled Building Resilience to Disasters through Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation and discuss disaster risk management issues in the region.

The opening ceremony of the TAC meeting was presided over by the Director of Early Warning and Response of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission of Ethiopia, Ato Muluneh Woldemariam, with the Director of Agriculture and Environment Division of IGAD, Mr. Mohamed Moussa, the Cooperation Section Manager of the European Delegation to the African Union, Mr. Pietro Nardi, and representatives from the World Bank Group, and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Management (UNISDR) at the high table.

The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of ICPAC in providing policy advice and support to its Member States on disaster and climate risk management and promoting resilient development. The project will strengthen ICPAC technical and coordination capacities for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in order to be able to better support Member States.

It will also benefit national agencies responsible for DRM in each Member States; relevant line ministries, national and sub national government agencies; NGOs and CSOs involved in addressing DRR and CCA at the regional, national, and sub national; as well as vulnerable populations living at-risk across the region.

Ato Woldemariam in his opening remarks highlighted that “the IGAD DRM Programme together with the member states’ DRM institutions” took “great credit for having introduced the paradigm shift from disaster management to risk management”. “It is now time for IGAD DRM Programme and member states to align their DRM efforts along with the international Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction 2015-2030 and the African Union’s New Programme for Action for the Implementation of the Africa Regional Strategy for Risk Reduction of November 2016” he said.

Mr. Mohamed Moussa reminded the audience that the project was “supported by the European Union funding channeled through the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)”. “The current project aims at building upon past achievements and incorporating more explicitly the need for integrating DRM and Climate Change Adaptation”, he said.

Mr. Pietro Nardi recognized the important role played by the Regional Economic Communities such as IGAD to “advance the Disaster Risk Reduction agenda” as “they have indeed the necessary political support and have already established DRR policies and strategies (…)”.

This Project being implemented by ICPAC is part of a larger program which is an initiative of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of States financed by the European Union (EU) and managed by the World Bank/Global Fund for Disaster Risk Reduction.