The Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in collaboration with the Government of South Africa will from 26th to 28th March, 2018 hold the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Conference in Pretoria, South Africa under the theme; Resilience for Sustainable Development.
The conference is aimed at reviewing progress made by the SADC Regional DRR Programme towards the management of uncertainty, reducing vulnerability and building resilience for SADC Member States and communities in view of the global and regional frameworks that guide DRR, resilience and sustainable development
Some of the key topics to be discussed at the conference include; SADC DRR Programming Towards 2030; Linking research with practice: Role of academia towards DRR in Southern Africa; Agriculture and food security; Progress and monitoring progress towards Sendai Framework of Action on DRR; Community based DRR; Mainstreaming DRR in Southern Africa – Review of experiences, best practices and recommendations from water resources management and gender; Urban and ecosystem based DRR; Research experiences on DRR; Adaptation and Migration and displacement; and Risk Finance Initiatives.
Participants to the conference will comprise technical officials from SADC Member States, United Nations agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), International Cooperating Partners (ICPs), the private sector and academia. The conference has been supported by, among other organisations, World Bank, European Union, United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction, North West University and African Union Commission.
The Disaster Risk Reduction Unit of the SADC Secretariat has the mandate to proactively coordinate disaster risk management at regional level. The Secretariat is in the process of developing a Regional DRR strategy to be aligned to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) (2015 – 2030) and the African Union Programme of Action for Disaster Risk Reduction. This Strategy will replace the one SADC developed in 2006 which was aligned to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and the Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ARSDRR) (2004).
