Report on disaster risk reduction 2015-2018: Southern African Development Community, an addendum to the Biennial Report on the Programme of Action for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 in Africa

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has plotted a long-term development path with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) (2005-2015) and the Revised RISDP (2015-2020), aligned with Africa Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Centred around the envisaged development profile of the region is the need to address disaster risks in an inclusive and holistic manner, emphasising vulnerability, and exposure reduction. Building the resilience of communities most at risk has become a priority for the region and this is evident in the recent development of the SADC Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Strategic Plan (2019) and the SADC Regional Resilience Strategic Framework (2019). Uncertainties linked to climate change and the intensifying of natural hazards on an annual basis, moreover, stress the need for enhanced disaster risk reduction actions by the Member States and other regional partners.

The aim of this biennial report is to assess on the implementation of the seven global targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and the additional five Africa-specific DRR targets, as outlined in the Programme of Action for the Implementation of the Sendai Framework in Africa (PoA), within the SADC region. The seven SFDRR targets as contextualised for the African setting is:

• Substantially reduce continental disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower the average per 100,000 continental mortality rate in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period 2005–2015;
• Substantially reduce the number of affected people continentally in Africa by 2030, aiming to lower the average continental figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period 2005–2015;
• Reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to the continental gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030;
• Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among them health and educational facilities, including through developing their resilience by 2030;
• Substantially increase the number of countries with national and sub-national/local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020;
• Substantially enhance international cooperation in developing countries through adequate and sustainable support to complement national actions for implementation of the Sendai Framework by 2030; and
• Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030.

In addition to achieving the above targets as set out in the Sendai Framework, African countries agreed to develop data by 2020 to measure progress in achieving the following additional targets:

• Substantially increase the number of countries with DRR in their educational systems at all levels, as both stand-alone curriculum and integrated into different curricula;
• Increase integration of DRR in regional and national sustainable development, and climate change adaptation frameworks, mechanisms and processes;
• Substantially expand the scope and increase the number of sources for domestic financing in DRR;
• Increase the number of countries with, and periodically testing, risk-informed preparedness plans, and, response, and post-disaster recovery and reconstruction mechanisms; and
• Substantially increase the number of regional networks or partnerships for knowledge management and capacity development, including specialized regional centres and networks.

In addition to assessing progress towards the Global targets of the SFDRR and Africa-Specific additional targets of the PoA, this report will give an outline of the disaster risk profile of the SADC region as well as report on developments in the institutional and policy arena. The report covers all of the sixteen (16) Member States of SADC, namely Angola; Botswana; Comoros; Democratic Republic Of Congo; Eswatini; Lesotho; Madagascar; Malawi; Mauritius; Mozambique; Namibia; Seychelles; South Africa; United Republic Of Tanzania; Zambia; Zimbabwe.

The objectives of this report necessitated the use of a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Two surveys were developed and administered online during a regional data collection workshop. In addition, existing databases and in particular the Sendai Framework Monitor (SFM), DesInventar, INFORM Index for Risk Management and International Disasters Database (EM-DAT) were used for baseline data.