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Disaster management is one of the greatest development challenges facing Africa. The devastating impact of disasters, natural and human-caused, cuts across all sectors of society and the economy, and threatens to blunt the expected achievements of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). NEPAD, an agenda of the African Union, has expected outcomes of economic growth and development, increased employment, and reduction in poverty and inequality, but these cannot be achieved without appropriate disaster management and planning, and early warning.
Realising the negative, far-reaching and cross-cutting impact that disasters have on continental development, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) in conjunction with the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), identified the need for an appropriate institutional collaboration for documentation and analysis, monitoring and assessment of disaster reduction on the continent, and sharing of best practices. A well-coordinated continental response requires the development of a collaborative institutional and data framework to support analysis and interpretation functions, facilitate greater harmonisation at sub-regional and national levels, and create a strong base for a reporting process for the region. In response to this initiative, and to the fact that no development agenda can be successfully articulated on the continent without addressing disaster management, this project, Strengthening Disaster Information Management in Africa (DIMA), seeks to expose the interface of policy, poverty and information access in the management and reduction of disasters. The harmonization of national and regional initiatives, and inter-sectoral and institutional responses to disaster management is a key factor in mitigating the effects on people and economies. Under the DIMA project, ISDR and SARDC seek to put in place a sustainable mechanism that supports information access while creating a platform for enhancing debate on this socio-economic development challenge. The ultimate goal is to contribute towards solutions to reduce the burden of disasters on development efforts in Africa. The project will be implemented in conjunction with sub-regional organizations, drawn from governmental institutions as well as non-governmental and private sector, and will include outreach to the media and parliaments. The geographical coverage of the project will be the African continent. The DIMA is built from the Disaster Management Information Project (DMIP), a project that was launched by SARDC in 1995, with the aim of providing accessible and accurate information on disasters in southern Africa. This was achieved through documentation and dissemination of existing and new technical and non-technical, and published and grey literature on measures for the assessment, prediction and mitigation of both natural and human-caused disasters. The DMIP was updated in 2002 through a joint ISDR and SARDC initiative under the project Strengthening Disaster Information Management in Africa. It now contains:
In addition to the above, the two institutions continue to raise awareness on disaster issues in Africa through articles and publications. |