A three-day conference on disaster risk reduction and resilience in Africa concluded on Thursday.

The meeting was organised by the African Union Commission, in collaboration with the government of Mozambique and the Southern African Development Community.

The meeting, under the theme ‘Scaling Proactive Governance and Strategic Investment for Disaster Risk Reduction and a Resilient Africa’, also brought together financial institutions, development partners, academia, civil society, and the private sector.

Daniel Chapo, Mozambican President provided the impact of the natural disasters in the continent.

“Floods, tropical cyclones, and droughts accounted for about 90% of the total damage caused by disasters in Africa. The number of occurrences increased from 602 to 738 events, which caused more than 74 000 deaths at the level of our continent.”

Chapo, spoke about the Mozambican experience.

“At the country level, we have more than 1 500 local disaster risk management committees. This is our front-line army, which warns communities in local languages, uses megaphones, uses community radios, so that people can leave the danger zones before the phenomenon happens.”

The event took place at a time when Mozambique faces difficulties in accessing climate finance to respond to the impacts of extreme events, in a country highly vulnerable to climate change.

–ChannelAfrica–