Participants meet in Mombasa for the inaugural Eastern Africa Dialogue Platform
Around 200 people are meeting in Mombasa, Kenya, this week for the first Eastern Africa Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action. Over three days, they will discuss how anticipatory action can strengthen systems for disaster risk management in this crisis-prone region.
The focus on the first day was to conduct a collective regional stocktake: what have we in terms of anticipatory action in eastern Africa – and are we getting it right? This information will be essential for assessing progress towards the goals set out in the regional roadmap and, during the opening ceremony, Dr Mohamed Ware, the deputy executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, reiterated its importance: “This roadmap is [there] to guide our member states as they integrate anticipatory action into their national disaster management strategies.”
We’ll be looking at strengthening aspects of coordination, aspects of financing, but also having a very clear strategy.
Speaking to K24, a Kenyan TV channel, Phoebe Wafubwa Shikuku, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), explained why these regional-level events are important: “[We can learn] the best practices from each other, from the different countries that are here... We’ll be looking at strengthening aspects of coordination, aspects of financing, but also having a very clear strategy [for the countries in the region].”
Tackling the big issues
The Eastern Africa Dialogue Platform continues throughout the week, and over the coming days, the participants will develop a series of national roadmaps for anticipatory action that will feed into the regional roadmap. They will also tackle several of the urgent challenges that countries here face, such as:
- how to adjust financing systems so that they can pre-allocate financing for anticipatory action
- how to implement this approach to ahead of complex and compounding risks – including the multi-hazard and multi-year crises that afflict the region
- Identifying what is still missing in terms of coordination and mainstreaming anticipatory action in eastern Africa.
“I am confident that the outcome of this regional platform will lead to stronger, more coordinated anticipatory action efforts,” concluded Dr Mohamed Ware, “to transition from reactive to preventive risk management, across our region and beyond.”
I am confident that the outcome of this regional platform will lead to stronger, more coordinated anticipatory action efforts to transition from reactive to preventive risk management, across our region and beyond.
Snapshots from the 1st Eastern Africa Dialogue Platform
All photos © WFP, except for those with the quotes (taken from social media).
The 1st Eastern Africa Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action is hosted by the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, the World Food Programme and the Anticipation Hub, an initiative of the German Red Cross, the IFRC, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. The organizing committee comprises the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Start Network, the University of Sussex, the World Meteorological Organization, the Jameel Observatory, the United Nations Development Programme, Save the Children and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. The Eastern Africa Dialogue Platform is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa programme.