In South Africa’s interest to help neighbours reduce risk and survive disasters
By Wilmot James and Jeremy Orloff
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SA has not been sufficiently forward-leaning as a regional power in preventing, mitigating, responding to and helping the recovery of its neighbours, which are among the world’s poorest countries. Inaction will rebound in terms of having larger refugee and migrant populations, and poorer economic performance on the domestic front. Smart investments in regional disaster preparedness will save SA money and bring returns over the long haul.
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Most people are unaware that Mozambique has been remarkably proactive in its efforts to upscale disaster preparedness. It was one of the first three African countries to subject itself to scrutiny by the World Health Organisation. A joint external assessment was completed in April 2016 and a mission report of findings was published that ranked Mozambique, with a few exceptions, poorly overall.
The exception was Mozambique’s emergency response system, which received the highest score there — five out of five. It had “strong emergency operation structures for natural disasters”, the report read.
But Mozambique had “no similar capacity for public health events”, which is needed to contain disease outbreaks and stop them spiralling into national and regional disasters. Mozambique faces a complex risk environment — cholera outbreaks, foodborne illnesses, chemical accidents, radiological events, floods, drought, fires and cyclones — but it does not have an all-risk plan. Its health systems are weak and a surge capacity in public health, something that must be activated within hours of a catastrophe, requires a robust backbone.
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