ISDR Africa facilitated the organization of the three day workshop held in Nairobi from the 17 to 19 October 2005. 35 officials, including delegates from all 10 African countries: Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Comoros, Kenya, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa and Tanzania – and representatives from UN/ISDR Africa, UN/ISDR PPEW, UNEP, UNDP, IFRC and ICPAC (IGAD Centre for Prediction and Application Centre) attended the meeting.

The workshop aimed at prioritizing and addressing the aforementioned gaps as well as initiate regional collaboration for enhanced early warning and disaster risk reduction.

Outcomes:
All delegates agreed that while the December 2004 tsunami was a terrible disaster, it also provides a window of opportunity for establishing proper early warning and disaster reduction programmes. Delegates were able to agree on regional priorities for action on early warning and disaster reduction for the eastern coast of Africa such as:

1. The establishment of a regional centre or focal point for early warning and disaster risk reduction. The term of reference and constitution of which were finalized and presented at the 3rd Early Warning Conference held in March in Bonn.
2. The enhancement of technical observation networks (gauges and measuring stations) with improved regional data protocols and exchange
3. Better synchronization of national disaster reduction platform activities. In Seychelles and Tanzania, national platform were launched.
4. Capacity building for technical data collection, monitoring and evaluation ads well as risk identification and analysis.
5. Education and sensitization of policy makers on disaster awareness, reduction and preparedness.

The conference was held 07 December 2005 at the au Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Ministerial meeting was preceded by the African experts meeting which was held from the 05 to 96 December 2005.

The Conference was attended by African Ministers in charge of DRR, African Ambassadors to the Au, other high ranking government officials and African DRR experts from 41 countries in the continent, 12 UN Agencies, African Development bank, regional economic communities and 4 regional civil society organizations.

The conference aimed at promoting political awareness of and commitment to disaster risk reduction and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into national development planning and programmes.

The expert meeting focused on the reviews of the development process and major components of Africa Regional Strategy on disaster risk reduction and discussed the implementation of the Africa Regional Strategy on disaster risk reduction “Programme of action”, in line with the Hygo Framework for action, which was adopted by the Ministers.

Outcomes: The African Ministers in charge of DRR renewed their political commitment in implementing and prioritized DRR into their national programmes of action and will continue to promote and strengthen partnership between national, regional and international institutions, for support of DRR activities.

Kenya, Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles and Tanzania have submitted project proposals in carrying out national workshops. The workshops are to be held from the months of April and May.

The common aims of the workshops are (1) to increase the understanding of community risk management process, the causes and impacts of tsunami and (2) how to link disaster risk reduction to sustainable development and especially with communal development planning and activities. (Detailed reports to be submitted at the next narrative report in June 2006).

The African national platform meeting was held from the 13 to 17 March 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was divided into two parts: part one was a training on disaster risk reduction and part two the consultative meeting for national platforms in Africa. The theme of the second part of the meeting was Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into school curricula.

UN/ISDR attaches a great importance not only to the establishment of national platform but also recognized vast potential from close partnership with the IFRC through the Red cross/red crescent national societies for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development and building disaster resilient communities. The workshop was thus convened through the joint efforts of the International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent, Nairobi Delegation and ISDR Africa.

Over 50 participants attended the workshop, UN/ISDR Africa, UNDP, UNDP/DDC and IFRC. This included national focal points, representatives from the Ministry of Education and representatives from red cross/red crescent national societies from the 18 countries represented.

Outcomes:
Participants having gained a better understanding of disaster risk reduction as well as each other’s institutional mandates and roles, the meeting will not inspire enhanced collaborations at the national and local levels but also contribute directly to the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction in development through school curricula.

The meeting confirmed the collaboration between National red cross/red crescent societies, national platforms and government institutions is a great utility in reducing the vulnerability of communities and should be further pursued and there are many effective ways to implement disaster risk reduction in school curricula which should be pursued at national and local levels.

The booklet was developed in collaboration with African Experts on geo hazards. It is finalized and expected to be printed before June 2006.

The aims of producing the booklet are to give more understanding to Community leaders and school children the evolution of earthquake and tsunami and how to react in case of earthquake/tsunami on the African context.

The development of the training manual was done by African Experts on DRR. The manual is to be part of a training package that will also include a workbook, a poster depicting a roadmap for disaster risk reduction, additional reading and a CD Rom containing all the materials.

The package will provide necessary tools to implement successfully training, be practical and adaptable for each African country and include disaster risk reduction issues and experiences in the region.

The package of training material will be published into 3 languages: English, Portuguese and French which are the main languages for the 10 African Countries in the East coast of Africa.

A part of the activities stated above, UN/ISDR Africa had also procured some materials and equipment to strengthen its capacities in coordinating the activities.

Computer and printer, camera and video and office furniture were procured for the Officers who are coordinating directly the project.

UN/ISDR Africa aims to establish formal working relations with African National Government in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into school curricula. UN/ISDR Africa believes that the culture of disaster prevention and preparedness cannot be achieved without growing awareness and understanding of disaster risk reduction among teachers and school children and the general public. General public can be aware if children and teacher are aware of their risks and parents often listen to what their children learnt from school. Children and teacher can be one channel of achieving the culture of prevention on disaster.

Experience was drawn from Tilly Smith, who saved hundreds of lives in by knowing the sign of tsunami learned at her geography lessons before her travel to South Asia. Therefore, it is necessary to raise awareness among school children and teachers in the east coast of Africa to increase the understanding of Tsunami and other risks, and the link between disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.