Drought conference adopts major strategies

The first African Drought Conference that was held in Windhoek has been described as a resounding success with more than 400 delegates attending the weeklong deliberations.
The conference made great strides as it adopted the White Paper Strategic Framework document for drought risk management and enhancing resilience in Africa, as well as the Windhoek Declaration for Enhancing Resilience to Drought.
The white paper which is now known as the Strategic Framework for Drought Risk Management and Enhancing Resilience in Africa, which proposes for a Drought Resilient and Prepared Africa (DRAPA), is the first of its kind to be developed.
Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta hailed Africa and Namibia for taking such a proactive approach in developing this framework.
According to Shifeta, the white paper was presented, deliberated and further developed by delegates from Africa during the technical segment. An open-ended working group was established, involving African delegates and civil society, to further develop and give recommendations for the strategic framework document. In addition, various experts made presentations and interventions on different aspects of drought to enrich the white paper document.
Over 27 presentations were made in the plenary sessions from across the world, while nine side events were also held on different aspects of drought management.
The strategic framework contains six main pillars which include drought policy and governance for drought risk management, drought monitoring, response and early warning as well as drought vulnerability and impact assessment. It also includes drought mitigation, preparedness, knowledge management and drought awareness.
The last pillar is to reduce the underlying factors for drought and cross-cutting issues, such as capacity and development, youth empowerment and reduce gender and income inequality.
Shifeta said it is expected that this framework will guide African countries, including Namibia, to develop and implement national and sub-regional drought policies, which will make them more prepared and resilient to drought events. The key focus of these policies will be to encourage a more pro-active approach to drought management and preparedness at the national and sub-regional level.
He said in terms of Namibia, this strategic framework will guide and assist the country greatly in the current process to review for the National Drought Policy and Strategy of 1997.
The second key outcome from this conference has been the adoption of a declaration which commits African countries to operationalise the strategic framework through a number of practical activities, which will ensure that this strategic framework will be implemented and will make a difference to the lives of our rural communities and farmers.
Mentioning some of the important actions that will be taken, Shifeta said the adoption through the relevant bodies of the African Union of DRAPA.
Another strategy is developing a binding protocol on drought risk management under the framework of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification to mobilise further commitment and support to drought resilience and land degradation neutrality through the ambit of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Another intention is to establish a continent-wide network of national institutions for drought monitoring and early-warning systems and also to convene future conferences to review progress in the implementation of the strategic framework document.


ELLANIE SMIT