AFRICAN COOPERATION ON DISASTER
RISK MANAGEMENT- THE MODEL OF IGAD REGION:

IGAD’S Perspective in Disaster Risk Management

Presented by

Keflemariam Sebhatu

IGAD Secretariat

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND TO THE IGAD REGION

IGAD was initially created in 1986 as the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) to coordinate the efforts of the Member States in combating desertification and promoting efforts to mitigate the effects of drought. The Authority also provided a regular forum for policy and decision makers of the member countries to tackle desertification and drought issues as well as other emerging regional and international challenges. Realizing this potential, the Heads of State and Government at an extra-ordinary Summit on 18 April 1995 resolved to revitalise the Authority and to expand its mandate to cover political as well as economic issues. Consequently, the Authority was renamed the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in 1996 and the Agreement Establishing IGAD was amended accordingly. 

The IGAD region has a population of over 160 Million people characterised by high growth rates. The average population density is about 30 persons/km². The population density varies between the countries. However, there are substantial variation ranging from 14.5 persons per km² in Somalia to above 95 per km² in Uganda. These variations are even more pronounced between different ecological zones. There are deserts with scarcely anybody living in them, and pockets in rural areas with high populations of more than 600 persons living on one km².

The IGAD region stretches over an area of 5.2 million km² comprising the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The rest of the region has great variety of climates and landscapes including cool highlands, swamp areas, tropical rain forests and other features typical of an equatorial region. The Region is prone to recurrent droughts and dry spells making it one of the most vulnerable regions on the African continent to climatic variations.

A.         Disaster Management in Regional Context

The IGAD Regional Program in support of Disaster Risk Management in the Horn of Africa reflects the social actors’ concerted decisions on how to pass from a risk situation to one of sustainability. During the revitalization period in 1996, IGAD moved from drought mitigation as a major focus to a broader outlook encompassing other developmental issues. In this regard IGAD’s new framework strategy and institutional structure, the disaster preparedness strategy encompasses disasters arising from causes other than drought, and reflects on linking of disaster management and development.

The concept of disaster management encompasses all aspects of planning for and responding to disasters with the objective of managing both the risks and consequences of disasters, including the body of policy and administrative decisions and operational activities which pertain to various stages of a disaster at all levels. However, in the region, the disaster management sector mirrors the economic situation of most of the IGAD countries. Unless a disaster occurs, disaster management is given a low priority by both governments and donors. Disaster response receives resources and funds during emergency periods but long-term development of disaster management capabilities, prevention, mitigation and preparedness measures are not addressed.

This is despite the clear international experience that resources committed to these activities reduce suffering and damage and cost less, in the long run, than response. Most IGAD member states are short of resources and funding for disaster management especially when considering preparedness, elaborating advance measures to establish capacities and mechanisms to minimise adverse impacts of disasters if and when they do occur, and so reduce the intensity or scale of any resultant emergency.

Although disaster management is a cross-cutting activity that affects every sector of society, limited attention is paid to developing comprehensive disaster management structures that encompass all levels of government and community participation throughout each country. This is particularly true when dealing with impact and needs assessment, trying to assess the nature and magnitude of a disaster once it occurs, its impact on affected populations, and the type and extent of emergency assistance that is required.

CATEGORIES OF HAZARDS THAT CAUSE DISASTERS

Disaster Risk.            The IGAD member countries are at risk from a variety of.  While any assessment is subjective and it is difficult to compare the impact of human suffering against damage to property, livelihood, the environment and national economies, the relative current importance of the various risks posed by the various hazards can be divided into three levels:

Pandemics and Epidemics:             The risk of large-scale epidemics in the IGAD Region is high owing to the presence of several endemic diseases, poverty, poor access to modern health services and weak systems of epidemiological surveillance. Epidemics of cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea and other diseases may occur during emergency situations and also result from crowded or unsanitary conditions, arising from contact with persons from different areas, and/or physical weakness and malnutrition. The risk for disasters has been greatly increased by the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  Of the epidemics, malaria is probably the biggest   threat in most IGAD countries.

Other disease threats to the IGAD Region include dengue fever (an viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes which occurs in all countries), typhoid fever, hepatitis, schistosomiasis, rabies, and various parasitic infections.

Drought.         Drought is another major hazard in the region with six of the seven countries being extremely vulnerable. Uganda does not experience consistent or widespread drought but periodic episodes of drought in its northern districts, some combined with other hazards, have had disastrous effects in the past. More than 40 percent of the IGAD population lives in semi-arid to hyper-arid zones. Droughts have historically caused widespread agricultural crop failures across the region, resulting in millions of casualties and massive loss of assets. The presence of large tracts of arid and semi-arid land and other factors, such as widespread reliance on subsistence farming and pastoralism, weak farming and livestock management systems, population pressures and water scarcity, all contribute to desertification, environmental degradation and deforestation. Furthermore, repeated stress and population pressures have reduced use and effectiveness of traditional coping mechanisms.

Conflict.         Wars and civil unrest have become the most serious causes of food insecurity in the region, disrupting food production and marketing activities. These renders populations more vulnerable to the effects of drought, pest infestations, epidemics, and livestock diseases and causing migration of large numbers of persons who then lose many of their assets and must rely on assistance to survive.

International and internal conflicts have inflicted heavy economic and social losses in the region. Finding durable solutions to displacement often poses problems. Relief and recovery measures to support millions of displaced persons use resources that would otherwise be available for national development.

Flood: Damaging floods in the IGAD Region are becoming more frequent. Flood is a major sudden-onset hazard affecting the region and occurs as a result of intense or prolonged rainfall.  Rapid runoff  water in valleys or down steep slopes can cause flash flooding while floods on the plains can disrupt life over wide areas.  Flood warning systems are virtually non-existent and much of the region lacks flood control facilities.  Poor land-use policies and limited flood hazard studies have led to increasing occupation of the floodplains while deforestation, soil and land degradation and sedimentation Further lack of preparedness, and lack of maintenance of flood control devices, and weak hydrological networks, have increased the level of risk.

Fire: Fire is also a hazard in the region.  While urban fires are normally controlled by the emergency services, rapid spread of fires in slum areas can lead to casualties, homelessness and loss of assets among the most vulnerable segment of society.  Rural fire is a significant hazard in some member countries.  Rural fire control resources are scarce and in suitable conditions fires can spread rapidly, destroying property, subsistence and cash crops as well as leaving the land vulnerable to erosion.

Environmental hazards: (including desertification, deforestation, ecosystem degradation, and environmental pollution)          All Member States in the IGAD Region are vulnerable to environmental degradation due to climatic conditions, population pressures, and lack of policies, legislation and support for environmental protection. The effects of degradation are intensifying in the region and rendering the population more vulnerable to other hazards, reducing the resource base for food and fuel production and increasing the probability and potential impacts of flooding. IGAD Member States have few natural resources databases to enhance understanding of causes and effects of development and mitigation interventions. Furthermore, the impact of development activities on traditional water and land management systems are rarely fully considered.

Pest infestation        The Desert Locust is the foremost pest threat to the IGAD Region. Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan are major breeding grounds. Swarms migrating as a result of summer breeding in Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula can invade the winter breeding areas of Somalia. Swarms produced as a result of winter breeding in southern parts of Eastern Africa and northern coastal areas can also invade the spring breeding areas of the country.

Earthquake.   Tectonic activity associated with the Great East African Rift System produces earthquakes in the Rift Valley and adjacent highlands. Vulnerability to earthquakes is significant due to low government and public awareness of the risk, high density of crowded buildings in urban areas, lack of microzonation studies, lack of consideration of seismic risk in land use planning and poor building standards.

Livestock diseases.             Livestock play a vital role in agricultural systems in the IGAD countries, providing 20-30 % of GDP and at farmer level as much as 70% of cash income. Livestock diseases are therefore a major threat to food security and livelihoods for a large part of the population.

Industrial and Transport accidents.           All IGAD countries support some level of industrial activity.  Much of this activity imposes risks on workers and sometimes on nearby communities.  Obsolete and worn equipment, limited maintenance, inadequate operator training and lack of safety procedures all increase the risk of accidents that can become disasters in some circumstances.  Explosions, major fires and hazardous chemical releases can all cause injury and serious damage. Use of techniques and materials no longer considered safe in other parts of the world contributes to the risk.

Similarly transport accidents, often relatively minor events, can be large enough to cause heavy casualties, as in the case of a wide-bodied airliner crash on an airfield, as well as major land and air pollution.  Accidents to overcrowded ferries can cause multiple casualties while oil spills and chemical releases from marine incidents can cause major environmental and economic damage that can reduce amenities and have a disastrous impact on tourism.

Cross-cutting factors that affect vulnerability to disasters.       A number of cross cutting factors affect vulnerability to hazards in the IGAD Region. These factors, all linked to development, are often the root causes of individual and societal vulnerability and may increase the risk of disasters and emergencies. They include poverty, high population growth, and scarcity of natural resources to support livelihoods, lack of policies and infrastructure, and inadequate health services.

Gender and Disaster Management in IGAD. From the perspective of disaster and its management, women have gained little from the different activities undertaken in the IGAD region. The limited capacity of disaster management personnel to undertake gender analysis and develop targeted activities for women’s empowerment has also contributed to poor articulation of and incorporation of gender issues in a systematic manner in disaster management.

In view of the nature and magnitude of hazards identified as critical in the region, capacity building and gender rights awareness should feature prominently in all humanitarian projects and programs. It is also necessary to promote women as integral members of disaster management groups.

The current approach adopted by most humanitarian agencies is that disaster affects communities and people and that there is therefore no need to target specific groups. All community groups regardless of gender experience disaster and should be taken care of. This manifested for example in the collection of information and the analysis of information in context for disaster management, which is not informed by a gender perspective

B.        INTITITUIONAL AND POLICYSTRATEGIC GAPS/ISSUES AT NATIONAL/REGIONAL LEVEL

 Disaster risk management strategies. National disaster management strategies in the region are poorly articulated. While they may be included or implied in policy statements and legislation, such coverage is fragmented.  This is not unusual in countries experiencing frequent disasters with response being a constant priority.  Available staff are hard-pressed to meet all needs. The time and resources needed to develop and review strategies are difficult to find.  This problem needs to be addressed if development is not to be interrupted by disasters and the demands of response.  Poor definition of strategies makes coordination, planning, strategy development, review and updating difficult and usually results in few people being aware of the full range of strategies available and the reasons for their adoption.  If policy makers have had neither training nor opportunities to compare experience with others, they may be deterred from giving strategy development its due priority.  Training in strategy development is vitally important.

In a number of countries the disaster management system does not address the full range of hazards that threaten the country.  Epidemics and drought, two major hazards, may not be recognised as disaster threats requiring the mobilisation of a wide range of national resources to alleviate their effects.  Consequently responsibility for developing strategies to deal with these hazards may be delegated to specialised ministries or agencies that lack access to a full range of management resources.  The agencies may lack the breadth of vision and the human and technical resources to identify activities that could be adequately handled by other agencies in a nationally managed response and this will limit their thinking.  Wide participation in strategy development is vital.

Planning. Clear and unambiguous disaster management plans at national, sub-national and district levels are rare in the region.  Most existing plans only address disaster response.  Planning of preparedness, prevention and recovery measures is rarely carried out.  Existing plans are unlikely to be publicly available.  Apart from district plans currently being developed in Uganda, which require annual review, little attention appears to be paid to regular review and updating in the other IGAD member states. 

Regional Policies.  Although IGAD has accepted a regional disaster management role, its responsibilities and policies in relation to this role have not been clearly defined.  This shortfall needs to be addressed and will require identification and endorsement of the relevant roles of IGAD and of the IGAD Secretariat.

National Policies and Legislation.  Disaster management is a basic responsibility of national government.  Detailed policies to guide disaster management activities at all levels are a vital basis of legislation, strategies and plans not only for disaster response but also for mitigation, preparedness and recovery.  Yet often these policies are developed informally or on an ad hoc basis - usually during or just after disasters.  This is not adequate.  Such policies need to be recognised as an important national management mechanism and must take account of all risks as well as the culture and administrative structures of the country.  Lack of clearly stated and widely understood policies makes the country significantly more vulnerable to hazards.  The countries of the IGAD region are subject to frequent severe hazards and their involvement in disaster response is a constant drain on resources needed for development.  By taking a measured approach to disaster management policy this drain on resources can be brought under control. The only consolidated and comprehensive policies in the region appear to be those in Ethiopia’s National Policy on Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (NPDPM) published in 1993. However,  although Kenya and Uganda are currently developing their policies.

Legislation.   There are some disaster management legislation in every country but in many countries, including those in the IGAD region, it is included in other legislation and are difficult to identify.  This can lead to confusion over roles and responsibilities, duplication of effort and gaps in coverage.  The major elements of disaster management legislation should be covered in a few clearly identifiable legal instruments that establish disaster management structures, list the conditions and procedures for declaring states of emergency, define the powers and limitations on officials, describe compensation arrangements for use of commandeered resources and protect officials from liability for losses incurred as a result of reasonable decisions made in good faith on available information.  Few of these requirements are covered in current legislation in the countries of the region.

Agreements.  Mutual support agreements can be very valuable in activating support during disasters for countries with limited resources.  No such agreements have been concluded in the region consequently the response to disasters in neighbouring regional countries can be slow. 

Furthermore, where possible, policies and legislation should be harmonised across national borders. Lack of harmonisation may lead to potentially divisive differences in the management of hazards and disasters that affect both sides of a common border.  In areas used by nomadic pastoralists, harmonisation is particularly valuable and can have significant economic benefits to governments as well as humanitarian advantages. No formal agreements on disaster management harmonisation exist in the region.

Regional collaboration. National disaster management agencies in the region have developed in isolation and are not in the mainstream of disaster management theory and practice.  Most are only active in response and preparedness for response.  Ethiopia is more advanced but even that country lacks expertise in some technical areas.  A notable shortfall in all countries is in the development of risk assessment and vulnerability analysis capability.

Contact between national disaster management agencies is rare despite the existence of a number of common hazards and increasing contact between regional scientific agencies.  There is no focal point for information exchange or mechanism for such exchange, even informally. Despite common overseas training of individuals in some agencies, no knowledge networks appear to have developed.  Access to computers and to the Internet is restricted as are skills in using these valuable sources of information and networking.  Although some disaster managers seeking help with particular activities have made contacts with other countries, these tend to be exceptional and there is no system through which the weaker systems can seek help from the stronger.

No collaborative sub-national disaster management activities exist. This has notable impact in border areas where common hazards and hazard impacts may be managed in different ways. This can lead to tensions between those living either side of the border and can actually inspire people to move to areas where support systems are better.

Early warning and information system.  Significant efforts are being made in the field of disaster and risk management, specifically during the International Decade Natural Disaster Reduction, resources, involving scientific and technical research, the implementation of appropriate programmes and projects in the field, and the harnessing of local know-how. The results, in the form of products, information and data, represent a unique scientific, technical and cultural heritage for sustainable development and the fight against poverty in Africa.

However, it has to be recognized that this information heritage is often dispersed on account of sectoral compartmentalization at the inter-institutional level. The huge body of data, information and products thus gathered does not always amount to a useable information capital for three main reasons:

The results of data collection and processing are disseminated among only a limited number of users who often form part of the same professional, scientific or technical domain. The products generated are only to a limited extent transformed into information that can be directly used in decision-making processes relating to the management of risk and disasters.

The information all too often remains dispersed, restricted and hard to access by users at both the national and international levels owing to a lack of suitable mechanisms for the circulation of information.

The result of all this is an apparent lack of information at the local level which contradicts the existence in reality of an information heritage within national and international institutions or bodies specializing in Africa throughout the world. This loss of "institutional memory" due to dispersal and compartmentalization is now recognized as being one of the major obstacles to sustainable development in Africa.

Moreover, early warning initiatives undertaken at both the country level and the regional level are often limited in scope and duration and do not always allow to undertake disaster and risk management processes in a comprehensive and coherent way. In the Horn of Africa, despite the IGAD transition in 1996, most of the initiatives undertaken in the region either at country or regional level focus mainly on drought, floods, and food security, that does not reflect the evolution of the situation and the plurality and importance of other hazards such as epidemics (HIV/AIDS) and conflicts, as well as their impact on the economy of affected countries.

Training in disaster management.  There is no regional training capability in general or technical disaster management subjects or relevant skills.  Consequently there is no regional standardisation of training and participation in international training is rare and spasmodic.  While some national disaster management staff have completed overseas courses, there is little evidence that this training has been transferred to regional or national programs in a systematic way.  National agencies conduct skills training to assist staff with their duties but this is not standardised and is often provided on an ad-hoc basis.  Individual donors, UN agencies and NGOs, have provided some training but this has been uncoordinated and consequently the differing approaches have led to the provision of some conflicting messages and inappropriate content.

Moreover, no comprehensive regional or national training needs analysis has been completed.  No institutions providing comprehensive programs of disaster management training exist in the region and the possibility of creating such programs has only occasionally been discussed.  While some countries have expressed ambitions to create ‘regional’ training facilities, these have never been realised and are clearly inappropriate at the current state of development.  Existing technical and tertiary educational institutions would be able to present programs but they would need expert technical assistance to develop them.  The fact that much of the training may need to be on a short-course basis may pose problems for some institutions. Establishment of a coordination network or structure is needed.

Public Education.  The people of the region appear to be increasingly unable to understand the hazards that threaten their lives and to help themselves.  Many traditional coping mechanisms are being neglected and the knowledge lost as communities are broken up by frequent disasters.  Disaster-related public awareness and education campaigns in the region have been predominantly drought or health related and conducted with significant input from international organizations.  They have tended to concentrate on current problems and no sustained developmental campaigns to develop broad public awareness and preparedness have been identified.  There is limited capacity in the disaster management community to conduct effective public awareness campaigns.

Thus, incorporation of disaster preparedness in formal education curricula has been identified.  This practice has been very successful in other parts of the world and should be explored in this region.

Needs Assessment and Resource Mobilization. Proper impact and needs assessments are required for an emergency response to establish locations of affected populations and disaster impacts upon them, and to identify and prioritize actions and available and needed resources. The results of the assessment must be quickly disseminated to mobilize national and international resources. Joint multi-stakeholder and government approaches to impact and needs assessment are essential to permit a rapid and coordinated response.

Funding for emergency response and rehabilitation is rarely obtained for all of the requested inputs or may arrive too late to be effective. Declarations and appeals from central governments to donors are usually made in collaboration with international assistance agencies. In cases where an emergency affects more than one Member State, a regional appeal may be more effective.

Acquiring, moving and storing surplus or needed commodities are difficult in the sub-region due to lack of infrastructure. Other problems include delays of imports and the low capacity of the free market to respond to disasters; inadequate capacity of ports to handle huge emergency shipments; and need to preposition resources for vulnerable areas, which are remote and inaccessible during the rainy season. To address these problems, some agencies have pre-positioned supplies such as medical supplies and seeds and tools. Conditions in the sub-region also support consideration of establishing Food Security Reserves at national level where feasible to respond to food emergencies. At the regional level, disaster reserve funds would allow a rapid and flexible first emergency response.

Improvements in transportation and communication infrastructure in the sub-region remain urgent needs to enhance emergency response. Needs include strengthening of the sub-regional road and railway network, and development of port and telecommunication facilities.

C.        CONCEPTUAL SHIFT TO RISK SCENARIO RATHER THAN THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Risks and disasters are, simultaneously, hazards and opportunities. The challenge is how convert the hazard into opportunities for a better quality of life and safer relationships between the community and the environment. The answer lies with the social actors: human beings and real institutions, and within the roles that each of them carry out (or neglect) within the society’s macro-processes.   In essence, their capacities or in-capacities to assume responsibilities are the key change agents.

This approach, of placing the emphasis on risk and its reduction, replaces the previous emphasis on disaster preparedness and response. This does not signify that disaster response and preparedness issues have been relegated to a secondary position.  Rather, the full range of risk management concerns is now highlighted, with preparedness and response incorporated dynamically and holistically within the framework of evolving ideas. The risk management approach integrates aspects of disaster management into the entire development context of countries and, in the case of the sub-region, into rehabilitation, reconstruction and reintegration processes and initiatives.

The Risk Management concept is used to refer not only to primary risk reduction or prevention and mitigation activities; it is seen to be an integrating concept and a tool that covers the whole spectrum of risk, including conflict, disaster management -from prevention through reconstruction, preparedness and response. The overarching concept advocates stimulating actions and activities that continuously manage and reduce risks in society. These result from a complex of social processes by which society and its individuals and organizations increase their awareness of, and their capacities to analyze and diagnose risk. Through analyzing and negotiating alternative strategies for risk management, the stakeholders involved eventually agree on viable solutions.

The concept of risk scenarios and that of differing levels of acceptable risk in different social contexts, are fundamental to risk management. (This goes far beyond generating conventional hazard or risk maps, to include social and economic considerations such as the actions of all the stakeholders involved in risk generation and management).  Risk reduction has to be promoted as a continuous process in the context of dynamic and changing risk scenarios and their patterns of hazard and vulnerability.  In other words, Risk Management encompasses all activities aimed at managing and reducing risk, irrespective of whether they occur prior to, during or after disaster events.   The major conceptual shift is that it is the risk scenario, rather than the disaster itself, which becomes the centre for stakeholder interventions.

In addition, risk management, seen as a guiding parameter or principle, is by its very nature closely linked to development, environmental planning and management, and thus, with the overarching paradigm of sustainable human development. Any process that seeks to strengthen human resource capabilities in risk and disaster management cannot ignore the premises associated with the management of risk. This includes dynamism and change, continuity and transformation, holism, specificity and difference, co-ordination and integration, and the presence of a diversity of social stakeholders involved in generating and managing risk.

The risk management approach seeks to recuperate, systematise, make express and conscious, and to improve the strategies that the communities have developed (many times in an isolated manner) within a social, economic and environmental context in permanent change.

Through this systematisation and related processes, a concerted intervention proposal tending to direct the community towards the goal of sustainable development must emerge. Risk management, therefore, is not significantly different from sustainable development. It includes certain of the same themes as hazard prevention, vulnerability prevention, disaster response, reconstruction of physical infrastructure and affected ecosystems, in addition to rehabilitation of communities; but it goes further.

Under this approach, local organisation for risk management becomes a key instrument. This must emerge as the result of the local population (its groups, leaders and organisations) meeting with the institutions (public and private) and other social actors concerned with development at all levels.

The Program is designed to assist disaster management agencies in the IGAD nations to develop, update and/or refine disaster management strategies and plans at national level and to enhance their capability to transfer these skills to sub-national and district levels.

Strategic Objective and Principles

The objective is to enhance the disaster risk management capabilities of IGAD and improve the capacity of member states to develop comprehensive disaster management strategies and plans through managing the risks rather than the disaster itself.

Ownership of the program and its specific components or project will be engendered by a consensus approach to project and activity development that will encourage the participation and acceptance of all stakeholders at every stage.  At regional level, a technical advisory panel of representatives from national disaster management agencies will monitor project activities. The agencies will participate in development of the design and content of project activities. National activities will follow a similar approach with national authorities being encouraged to involve a wide range of ministries, agencies, sub-national and district governments, NGOs, community groups and other formal and informal networks, including traditional networks, in the development of plans and strategies. This level of participation will also help to create networks that will encourage participation in, and enhance ownership of, other aspects of disaster management.

 The basic principles of the Program are to:

·         establish the project with a clear IGAD regional identity that takes account of the strengths, weaknesses, cultural and governmental, traditional and community of each participating nation;