Report lists factors hampering Africa's climate change adaptation planning

AfriqueJet: A new report says a number of Africa countries lack institutional mechanisms and legal frameworks important for coordination at national level in achieving local Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and climate adaptation planning. The report: “Managing Climate Extremes and Disasters in Africa: Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report,” which was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week says without a supporting and implemented national legislative structure, achieving local DRR and climate adaptation planning can be complicated.

The report however notes that in some high-risk regions, rapid development of national platforms of civil society organisations and Community-based organisations is helping to push for the transformation of policies and practices related to DRR.

Public understanding of risks and vulnerabilities is critical, but insufficient for risk management, early warning systems therefore need to be complemented by preparedness programmes as well as public education and awareness, the report says.

In Kenya, it notes that risk is quantified and factored into national budgetary processes and the government of Kenya intends to allocate two percent of the annual public budget to a National Disaster Management Fund.

The report says economic losses from weather and climate related disasters are increasing, albeit with large inter-annual variability, and notes that while measured economic losses from disasters are largest in developed countries, there is confidence that fatality rates and economic losses as a proportion of GDP are higher in developing countries....

Location map of Kenya by Vardion, , Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license