HIV/Aids Africa

If the Southern African Development Community is to genuinely r
In recent months, the assessment of
food security and disaster preparedness in Namibia featured quite prominently on
the national agenda. Various meetings were held in Namibia and within the SADC
region were national and regional food security as well as the region’s
capability to deal with natural and other disasters were discussed at length.The
irony of the matter is that all these meetings were tainted by the mega-waste of
at least 23 fully loaded interlink trucks in important food aid that was lost
through gross negligence in the Caprivi and Kavango regions over the last couple
of months.In retrospect, it is important that Namibia gets its own house in
order by bringing to book those responsible for the scandalous wasting of food
aid before spending valuable time and effort in looking at the greater SADC
region.Recently held meetings mainly focused on disaster preparedness and
disaster response whilst important aspects such as political will, logistical
infrastructure and the availability of properly trained personnel are being
ignored. This came out clearly at a recently held SADC pre-season disaster
management meeting held in the capital.The main purpose of the meeting was to
assess the region’s capability to deal with natural and other disasters as well
as to harmonise regional levels of preparedness, mitigation and reconstructionIf
the Southern African Development Community is to genuinely recognize disaster
management as an integral part of overall development, it is important that a
disaster response and relief strategy be based on long-term planning,
co-ordination and the synchronization of efforts to mitigate the impact of
disaster and thereby reduce the vulnerability of the people in the SADC.In her
opening address, deputy prime minister Libertine Amathila stressed the fact the
SADC region lacked technically skilled disaster relief human personnel to
implement contingency plans and that a high staff turnover at national level
often disrupts relief efforts. “Southern Africa is a disaster-prone region by
virtue of its geographical location and expected disasters such as cyclones,
droughts, famine, landslides, floods and epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, to mention
but a few”, Amathila said.Amathila further urged delegates to start considering
HIV/AIDS as a natural disaster. “It [HIV-AIDS] has left a huge score of orphans
that must be cared for by society, and HIV-AIDS has consistently been tapping
from the national health budgets at ever-increasing rates. The SADC is affected
to enormous proportions by this pandemic”, said Amathila.Amathila further
expressed the view that there is an urgent need for SADC action to enter into an
appropriate Disaster Management Protocol. “Such a protocol would partly diminish
and eliminate the instances of duplication of relief efforts, delays in
response, wasteful deployment of resources and sporadic relief interventions”,
said Amathila.The formation of smart partnerships with organizations involved in
relief work was also identified as mechanisms that would successfully alleviate
people’s plights in post-disaster periods. According to Gabriel Kangova, deputy
director at the Emergency Management Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister,
the meeting discussed, amongst others, the establishment of working
relationships between SADC member states and the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) that usually assists in post-disaster periods.Kangova further
stressed that representatives of SADC member states use the two days of the
meeting to assess their individual country’s capabilities of dealing with
disasters in their respective countries and in the region as a whole. “Every
SADC member state has strategies in place to deal with disasters, natural or
otherwise. We used the meeting to strengthen those strategies and to harmonise
all strategies to be in line with regional disaster preparedness”, said Kangova.
The meeting further discussed co-operation between member states’ emergency
management units and their respective military components as well as ways to
strengthen liaison between the SADC region and the international community in
disaster management.In concluding her opening address, Amathila drew delegates
attention to communities involvement in disaster management and response saying
that it was imperative that they were directly involved in disasters which
affected them.”Communities must be active participants and decision-makers in
the process of improving national and regional preparedness. I am well aware
that this is a difficult task, but we will find ways, I am sure, to convince
communities to play their part”, Amathila said.