East African Business Week

ARUSHA, TANZANIA - The East African Community (EAC) and the African Union Commission (AUC) are working out modalities to establish a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) platform through which the region aims to reduce the occurrence of natural and man-made disasters.
 Officials from EAC partner states, AUC and the EAC Secretariat convened in Arusha last week to discuss the operation of the proposed platform. The three-day regional workshop was expected to consider ways of strengthening national platforms within the Partner States.
 The workshop which brought together mayors of different cities to share experiences in reducing urban risks in their respective cities, was used by experts to strengthen the existing sub-regional Disaster Risk Coordination mechanisms and accelerate the implementation of the Africa Regional DRR Strategy.
 Opening the workshop the EAC Deputy Secretary General (Productive and Social Sectors) Mr. Jean Claude Nsengiyumva noted that the workshop had come at an opportune time when the region was becoming more predisposed to both natural hazards and man-made disasters.
 "The East Africa region is prone to natural hazards such as floods, droughts, landslides, strong winds, lightening and their secondary impacts of diseases and epidemics. Drought and floods are the most frequent disasters in the region," Mr. Nsengiyumva said.
 He added that that as people in Africa leave rural areas for cities in search of better livelihoods, they set up in informal settlements (slums), thereby increasing urban risks of fires and disease epidemics among others.
 Mr. Nsengiyumva further noted that with this current trend, it is estimated by UN Habitat that 80% of Africa's population will be living in cities by 2050, which will in turn accelerate urban risks through constrained resources availability and other vulnerabilities.
 In this context the Deputy Secretary General said EAC was cognizant of the need for an integrated approach in policy formulation and programming for disaster risk reduction and climatic change adaptation and mitigation.
 The Mayor of Arusha, Mr. Gaudance Lyimo, pointed out that one method of fighting disasters or reducing risks is to share information in a timely manner and cascade this information to those who need it most, that is, the vulnerable communities.
He added that the information and experiences generated from the forum would be useful in future planning and development of cities in East Africa.