Minister Mkhize to deliver a keynote address at the IDDR commemoration
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr Zweli Mkhize will lead a commemoration of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDR) to be held in the Northern Cape Province from 15 to 16 November 2018. The IDDR 2018 is held under a theme: “Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience” - Reducing direct disaster economic losses in relation to gross domestic product.
Disasters are serious disruption of the normality in society and South Africa, like all other countries, is not immune from this phenomenon. South Africa has also recently experienced some disasters like Knysna fires, drought, the infestation of fall armyworm and localized flooding in many areas.
Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyse and reduce the causal factors of disasters. “Reducing exposure to hazards, lessening vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness and early warning for adverse events are all important and will surely assist us in medium to long term to reduce the risk of disasters”, said Minister Mkhize.
The IDDR is therefore a celebration of how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters. This annual commemoration held on 13 October is as per Resolution 64/200 of the United Nations General Assembly; which, amongst other deliverables, also reaffirmed the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction as the primary mechanism for development, promotion and improvement of disaster risk reduction methods.
The significance of commemorating IDDR lies in the fact that through Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) countries can build resilience to disasters, promote sustainable development, protect persons and their property, livelihoods, health, as well as cultural and environmental assets.
The commemoration will bring together various role-players and stakeholders, including: Ministers of relevant sector departments, Metropolitan, District and Local Municipalities, Traditional Authorities and Private Institutions. The IDDR commemoration is a platform for Practitioners in disaster risk management and policy makers to reflect on achievements in reducing the risk of disasters. It is also a platform for advocating for further commitments by the Political Leadership, Technocrats in an attempt to reduce the risk of disasters, including the development of new risks. Further, the IDDR commemoration provides a platform for encouraging individuals, communities, government and civil society to contribute and become agents of change in building disaster resilient communities, countries and regions.
The commemoration brings to everyone’s lips an important question, “what response will South African citizens expect from government in the event of a major catastrophe at home?”, "In South Africa, it is not necessarily the 'classic', comparatively rare events which receive massive media coverage that we should be focusing on, but rather on building alert, informed, self-reliant and resilient communities who have the capacity to withstand, cope and recover from these relatively less spectacular events which affect them on a regular basis.
This important commemoration gives us an opportunity to reflect on our current systems and plans in place to mitigate against disasters and to craft a plan going forward. The event will also bring back to the environment the importance of everyone’s involvement in disaster risk reduction. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) includes disciplines like disaster management, disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness, but DRR is also part of sustainable development.
In order for development activities to be sustainable they must also reduce disaster risk. On the other hand, unsound development policies will increase disaster risk and disaster losses. Thus, DRR involves every part of society, every part of government, and every part of the professional and private sector, hence Minister Mkhize called on South Africans to play their part in reducing disasters as this is everybody’s business.
The choice of Northern Cape to host the 2018 commemoration is important as this province was amongst the worst affected by drought. The provincial drought conditions were exacerbated by high proportions of Prosopis invader plant species with a deep root systems and high water consumption depleting groundwater table.
To this effect, government implemented some intervention (disaster risk reduction) measures, including: provisioning of drought conditional grants (NDMC) to specific sector departments such as Agriculture for purposes of assisting supply farmers with fodder; eradication of invader plants by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA); installation of bulk water supply by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). It is without a doubt that these interventions are a good showcase work in the commemoration of IDDR 2018. It is important to note that key interventions have been implemented as part “investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience”.
Guided by the Disaster Management Act, 2002, which provides for the participation of a wide range of stakeholders to engage in ensuring that mitigation and prevention are the primary focus of disaster management planning, South Africa stand ready to handle any disaster, but everybody’s involvement will be a catalyst. The act focuses on speeding up response and cutting red tape to ensure that disasters are dealt with efficiently and effectively. It also provides clear guidelines for the classification of disasters and the declaration of states of disaster in South Africa.
The Act also called for the establishment of disaster management centres for monitoring and disseminating early warnings. These actions would be coupled to community awareness and preparedness programmes to ensure the development of "risk avoidance" behaviour among the
The IDDR commemoration is planned to adopt, both awareness and advocacy approach focused on priorities 1 & 3 of the SFDRR:
- “building an understanding of disaster risk;
- and investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience”.
The IDDR 2018 commemoration will be preceded by support of the build-up events coordinated by the host province.
The programme will unfold as follows at Naba Lodge in Upington:
IDDR Programme 15 – 16 November 2018:
Day 1: 15 November 2018:
- Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction - Technical Practitioners Session.
Day 2: 16 November 2018:
- Commemoration of an International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) 2018 to cover the following aspects.
Part A: Speeches by government leadership – across spheres
Part B: Case study statements from Municipalities
Part C: Engagements with stakeholders
It is anticipated that the commemoration of IDDR will create a platform for highlighting the contribution of various sector departments in managing drought disaster and invader species in the Northern Cape, including advocating for future commitments into reducing the risk of drought disaster.
Enquiries:
Musa Zondi
Cell: 072 800 6449
