Rowena Hay, a hydrogeologist and disaster risk reduction (DRR) expert, writes in an opinion piece on Business Day that it is time for Africans to speak coherently about the environmental and social threats they face, building on and adapting established global risk models. According to Hay, individual efforts in disaster risk reduction do make a difference and can eventually secure political will and public support.
Hay continues that there is a very important role for the African voice, but that it needs to be well thought through, coherent and formally put across within the UN’s structured conversation such as the Hyogo framework, the predecessor to the Sendai framework, and various other international agreeements for DRR.
Rowena Hay is founder and MD of applied science consultancy Umvoto Africa