David Malingha Doya
31 July 2007
Nairobi — African countries will soon manage transboundary disasters jointly - but only after they approve a proposal to give that function to the Regional Disaster Management Centre of Excellence based in Nairobi.
At a meeting in Kampala, ministers in charge of disaster management from 11 African countries set November as the deadline to obtain national approvals for the initiative.
This move comes hot on the heels of recent tremors in East Africa and just a few months after a Rift Valley fever attack that affected both Kenya and Tanzania.
Already, countries like Egypt and Tanzania have established policies on disaster management. Indeed, they have used such guidelines to address such disasters as train crashes and Rift Valley fever.
"In Uganda, our paper on disaster management has been approved by the Justice Ministry, and will be presented before the Cabinet next week," Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere said.
In Kenya, the Cabinet has already approved a paper on disaster management that will be sent to the disaster management centre for further guidance, said Maj. Stephen Sane, the director of the National Disaster Operations Centre.
In a joint communiqué by the Golden Spear Initiative which met under the auspices of the United States Central Command, ministers and army leaders acknowledged that the current preparedness and response capacities of member countries cannot effectively manage disaster, hence the need for regional co-operation.
The ministers say that, under the Golden Spear Initiative, say national policies or guidelines will be tailored towards managing disasters in conjunction with neighbouring countries, because both natural and human induced disasters can occur across borders.
The countries participating in the initiative are Burundi, Djibouti, Egypt, Rwanda, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo. Sudan and Somalia are expected to join the league later.
The countries have agreed to pay $27,000 each, annually and an additional amount proportional to each country's GDP.
The ministers want to develop national records of possible and past disasters and how often they occur and also assess the countries' capacities for disaster preparedness and management. They also plan to establish national warning and disaster-response centres in each of the member states under the initiative.
However, according to the director of Regional Disaster Management Centre of Excellence, Col (rtd) Shem Ishahilidza Amadi, disaster management is too wide a field for them to single out areas of emphasis.
Right now, we want to develop a roadmap for activities at the centre, focus on building capacity in preparing for and managing disasters through regional training workshops and co-ordinate expertise assistance from international organisations," he said.
The Golden Spear Initiative wants to handle all kinds of disasters from fires in schools to earthquakes.
"We want to establish how member states are prepared to handle fire related disasters and earthquakes, the knowledge we have of their causes and what how we can anticipate their effects," Prof Kabwegyere said.
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