Minister Seeks Regional Cooperation in Disaster Management

Hajiya Hadiza Mailafia, minister of Environment, has urged ECOWAS member countries to integrate disaster risk prevention and mitigation in policies and programmes of their governments.

Mailafia made the call at the Seventh Consultation of the Regional Committee for Disaster Management in West Africa, hosted by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Mailafia said that most of the hazards confronting the sub-region were trans-border in nature, urging better cooperation and coordination among concerned countries.

She said that disaster-related management actions must at all times, aim at strengthening capabilities and resilience of households and communities to protect their lives and livelihoods.

Mailafia said that disasters had put agriculture and food security at risk with severe consequences on vulnerable and poor agriculturally dependent people in the sub-region.

``It is, therefore, imperative to state that countries in the sub-region need to consider preparedness, mitigation and response not only in their own individual capacities but across the border.’’

She said that countries in West Africa and the sub-Sahel region experienced yearly natural disasters such as droughts, floods, trans-boundary animal diseases, economic crisis and civil conflicts.

``These events result into losses of lives, assets and livelihoods, consequently weakening the food and nutrition security of the populations,’’ Mailafia said.

Alhaji Mohammad Sani-Sidi, NEMA’s director-general, advocated a stronger regional mechanism for disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness among ECOWAS countries.

Sani-Sidi said that disasters constituted the biggest threat to national development in developing countries.

`` It has become necessary for ECOWAS nations to work towards building regional drought, flood and epidemics early warning system, search and rescue platforms that will enhance our cooperation on effective and sustainable emergency management.’’

He pledged NEMA’s support and cooperation towards developing a regional framework for mutual support and cooperation on disaster management in the sub-region.

Sani-Sidi expressed the organisation’s willingness to develop a framework for effective emergency preparedness, response, mitigation and sustainable development of ECOWAS nations.

Sani-Sidi said that developing a strategic partnership initiative with sister African countries on disaster and emergency preparedness, was in line with NEMA’s drive to foster regional cooperation among ECOWAS countries.

Mrs. Allegra Baiocchi, representative of the UN Regional Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in West and Central Africa, lamented the upsurge in the number of disasters and their devastating impact on populations and destruction to economic and social assets.

She said that report from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimated that 1.3 million people had been killed and 4.4 billion affected by natural disaster in the last 24 years.

Baiocchi said the organisation in a new global risk assessment report, published in May, also warned that direct losses from disasters had been underestimated by at least 50 per cent.

She said the report put cost to global economy in the range of 2.5 trillion dollars ``since the start of this century’’, noting that the number of people affected by floods in West Africa had tripled since 2007.

``In Nigeria, millions of people were affected by flooding in 2012, causing a reduction in cereal production and placing 18 million people in dire food insecurity and nutrition crisis.

``Today we still have more than 11 million people struggling to recover from the 2012 food crisis and continue to face food insecurity.’’

She urged the forum to formulate trans-border recommendations on how to better use international and national information, coordination and funding mechanism for disaster preparedness and response.