Gaborone — Botswana has signed the SADC Memorandum of Agreement for the establishment of the humanitarian and emergency operations centre in Mozambique.
The SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre was established in 2021 by the then chairperson of SADC, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi as part of the region's disaster risk management and resilience-building efforts.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, Minister for State President Mr Kabo Morwaeng said the centre of that nature was long overdue and its importance could not be over-emphasised.
"In the past few years, our region has been on the receiving end of devastating disasters, one after the other.
These varied in nature and impact, ranging from droughts, veldt fires with storms and floods leaving a higher and severe human impact," Minister Morwaeng said.
He noted that it was SADC's duty to respond speedily to save lives and to lessen the impact on the community when such calamities occurred.
In Botswana's case, Minister Morwaeng said government had put in place measures to mitigate the impact of these disasters in order to save lives.
"For instance, we have an effective system that responds to frequent droughts in the country. We provide nutritional feeding of the under-five-year-old children in clinics and schools as well as livestock feed subsidies," he said.
He highlighted that contingency plans were developed at national and local level to respond to fires, floods and epidemics.
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To that end, Minister Morwaeng said it was important for SADC member states to exchange notes on disaster management and work together as a collective to preserve the region's developmental gains and ensure community resilience.
He said it was against this background that Botswana became a signatory towards the establishment of a humanitarian and emergency operations centre in Mozambique.
"We believe it will go a long way in coordinating efforts towards saving the lives of communities in the region. We hope that the international community and cooperating partners will join our region's effort to respond to calamities and build resilience during disasters," he said.
Further, SADC senior advisor at the Disaster Risk Management Unit, Mr Alex Banda said the region experienced an increase in weather-related phenomena in the last five years, including droughts and tropical cyclones, hence the need to speed the establishment of the humanitarian and emergency operations centre.
The impact of the adverse weather conditions, he said, were widespread in the eastern part of the region and resulted in social economic disruption and environmental degradation.
He said it was pleasing that Botswana was the latest country to sign the protocol, adding that 11 of the 16 SADC member states were required to sign a protocol or agreement before it entered into force.
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