Day: August 29, 2022

Mombasa, Kenya– The Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Initiative launched the “Greater Horn of Africa: Strengthening early warning and early action systems for meteorological, hydrological, and climate extremes” project, which will be implemented regionally and in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan, by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and The World Bank.

The project aims to enhance the capacities of regional and national entities to produce and use climate, weather, and hydrological services, including early warning systems. It will support regional activities and also provide support to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan through technical assistance, building upon and leveraging the ongoing and pipeline investment projects implemented/financed by the UNDRR, WMO, and World Bank.

These services are needed more than ever, as the Horn of Africa is increasingly threatened by climate hazards and extreme weather. Right now, millions of people face a humanitarian crisis because of several years of below-average rainfall and failing crops, as the region is being ravaged by the worst drought in four decades. At the same time, the region has also been struck by damaging floods, that have destroyed crops, washed away infrastructure, and killed vulnerable people.

In Somalia, the UNDRR Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) has already initiated a project to enhance the effort of disaster risk reduction. The UNDRR ROAS project in Somalia aims to improve the governance, understanding of risks, and the capacity to address disaster risks at national and local levels to better prepare for and respond to disasters, reduce vulnerabilities, loss of life, and economic damages. It comes to revise and update the National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy impact in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Arab Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction; in addition, to develop a multi-hazard early warning feasibility study and a local disaster risk reduction and resilience action plans in one pilot city.

Till now, together with partners, UNDRR ROAS has organized multiple workshops that introduced the functionality of Sendai Framework Monitor and DesInventar-Sendai, as well as the guidelines for developing national disaster risk reduction strategies and national disaster risk reduction platforms. Furthermore, under the umbrella of supporting the strengthening of disaster risk reduction implementation at the local level, UNDRR ROAS has organized capacity-building workshops on the Sendai Framework and the essentials for Making Cities Resilient.

In parallel, the UNDRR ROAS works on developing a multi-hazard risk profile in Sudan that underlines risk factors across major sectors and the most vulnerable areas. Furthermore, UNDRR ROAS has developed a scoping paper for probabilistic risk assessment. The objective of this initiative is to strengthen Sudan’s capacity to systematically account for disaster losses, identify hazards, and develop risk assessments. The UNDRR ROAS collaborated with the government to identify the problem, the need to perform risk assessments, and how these results can increase overall disaster resilience.

The CREWS Greater Horn of Africa project’s regional activities will be centered around improving regional services to support countries to provide effective early warning systems (EWS) and strengthening regional coordination and cooperation for effective EWS and climate services. In Ethiopia, activities will support ensuring early actions and developing demand-driven climate and early warning information services. In Somalia, activities will focus on developing and delivering priority public hydromet services, and institutional development. As for Sudan, activities will focus on strengthening community involvement in EWS and strengthening flood early warning services.

The project launching event brought together representatives of the regional partners (ICPAC, ENTRO, and Red Cross), national stakeholders (national meteorological and hydrological services as well as disaster risk management authorities in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan), the implementing partners (UNDRR, WMO, and World Bank), and regional stakeholders.

The project is supported under the CREWS Initiative, a mechanism that funds Least Developed Countries (LDC) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to increase the availability of, and access to, early warning systems.

Source: UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, in Tunis today:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me start by congratulating the Tunisian Government for hosting and organizing the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development for the second time only on the African continent.

It is my pleasure to speak to you about the climate-related actions we need for people and for the planet. This year has given us a glimpse of the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. Many corners of the world have faced storms, floods, droughts and raging wildfires. Lives and livelihoods have been lost. Tunisia has not been exempt from the negative impacts of climate change.

In this context, just about a month ago, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a historic resolution that declared access to a clean and healthy environment a universal human right. I would like to commend Tunisia for their vote in favour of this landmark resolution, as well as all who are acting to ensure a greener and healthier planet for future generations.

Despite this breakthrough, much more remains to be done. Today, I urge everyone, everywhere to employ innovative solutions and mobilize communities, the private sector and Governments to accelerate our pace to taking these solutions to scale. To do this we need young people, including the young people of Tunisia to play a leading role.

From the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development to Africa’s Twenty-seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations stands committed to amplifying your voice and accompanying you in this journey to a more peaceful and healthier planet.

I wish you a successful Conference.

Source: United Nations

Hunger in East Africa doubles in one year with response branded “hugely inadequate”

The response of the international community in responding to the early warning signs of a hunger crisis in East Africa has been branded “hugely inadequate” as hunger more than doubles in one year according to analysis by international development charity, Christian Aid.

In a report, titled Ripping off the Band Aid, Christian Aid warns hunger has “more than doubled in one year.” On World Humanitarian Day 2021, there were 2.1 million people in Kenya facing food insecurity while 4.1 million Kenyans facing the same fate in 2022.

In Ethiopia, people facing food insecurity have dramatically escalated from 5.2 million to 20 million. Across Ethiopia and South Sudan, the UN reports gaps in funding have forced a cut to rations, incomplete food baskets and a reduction in the number of people helped.

The analysis also shows the catastrophic impact on crops, livestock and pasture has been compounded by other shocks, including conflict, flooding, desert locust infestations, the lingering effects of Covid on prices and now disrupted supply chains.

Christian Aid warns the crisis in East Africa has shown the aid system isn’t fit to respond to the ever-increasing scale of emerging crises. To break the cycle of food hunger, the charity says it is now time to “rip off the band-aid”.

The development agency is calling for a scaling up of locally driven approaches that builds on existing capacity and local knowledge to strengthen resilience and create the flexibility to rapidly respond to unfolding needs in East Africa and further afield.

Pointing to the work of their local partner Community Initiative Facilitation and Assistance (CIFA), Christain Aid’s partner in Kenya, Christian Aid says their experience of building communities’ resilience through a partnership approach works.

Despite the drought’s persistence, a group of women working with CIFA have been able to keep up the productivity of their land to support livestock and the local market for fodder due to investment in improving their land in 2021.

The group has been able to successfully plant grasses and have sold off three harvests of hay, turning a profit each time above their projections. They are also selling firewood from the land in the local market.

Mbaraka Fazal, who is based in Kenya and is Christian Aid’s Global Humanitarian Manager, says:

“The hunger crisis has seen men and boys forced to trek further for water and pastureland, exacerbated conflict over these scarce resources and leaving women and girls at greater risk by being left behind for longer periods without a regular income or basic items.

“In a world where there is enough food for everyone it is a moral outrage that people are dying of hunger.

“While helping people currently facing life-threatening hunger is of the utmost importance, so too must we start thinking longer term. We must accept the aid system is but a sticking plaster that is not fit to respond to the ever-increasing scale of emerging crises.

“Christian Aid’s experience of working with local partner organisations in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan shows that people’s ability to withstand failed harvests and rising food prices can be significantly improved with supportive preventive action.

“To break the cycle of food hunger, it’s time to rip off the band-aid and invest in building resilient communities during and between crises. That demands government backed finance and local knowledge to complement early warning systems and anticipatory action.”

Source: Christian Aid