Mainstreaming disaster risk management in national sustainable development plans in South Sudan
UNESCO is supporting South Sudan to enhance its resilience to natural hazards through knowledge generation, training and creating institutional capacity. The training workshop contributed towards better understanding of Disaster Risks Reduction (DRR), risk awareness, prevention and preparedness regarding disasters induced by natural hazards in South Sudan. Sardar Umar Alam, UNESCO Head of Office and Representative to the republic of South Sudan reiterated UNESCO’s commitment to support government’s efforts in the development of disaster risk management policy and its implementation.
Banak Joshua, Acting Undersecretary at Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Risk Management, said "the main pillars of the policy is capacity building of the nation to be prepared for disasters, second is to ensure that we have an effective early warning system to predict disasters and third is to have the ability to mobilize resources when disasters occur"
The draft disaster risk management policy supported by the UNESCO will be discussed in a public hearing early next month before being taken to parliament for deliberation.
Twenty participants from different line ministries including Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Risk Management, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Ministry of Agriculture and Food security, Ministry of Environment, South Sudan Department of Meteorology, Ministry of Mining and University of Juba attended the two-day training. The diverse composition of participants was important to analyze the functioning of the existing inter-ministerial information-sharing and coordination as well as to identify good practices in mainstreaming DRR in sectoral and national development plans.
Dr. Yohannes Subagadis, Hydrologist and DRR specialist at UNESCO Juba who facilitated the training, said “strengthening technical capacity to enable experts to make reliable forecasts and vulnerability analysis is essential to prepare for potential hydrological risks, such as floods, drought and extreme events.”
The training supports the implementation of outcome area 1, “enhancing the resilience of communities”, of the Interim Cooperation Framework (ICF) of the United Nations Country Team in South Sudan.