…Two years after made promise on the bill, nothing to show
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-President Lazarus Chakwera has been caught lying again on enactment of Disaster Risk Management Bill (DRM) two years after he made commitment passing it into law.
In December 2020, during national address Chakwera committed himself that the bill would be tabled in Parliament and passed into law, come January 2021 seating.
Two years down the line, nothing on the ground but only dilly-darling on the bill between Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) and Ministry of Justice.
The development has angered Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC) and its partners as to why Chakwera commitment has not been materialized despite finalization of the bill’s paper work through thorough consultations.
Addressing the news conference on Friday evening, December 16, 2022 in the capital Lilongwe CISONECC National Coordinator Julius Ng’oma expressed worrisome over lack of political will from executive arm of government.
Ng’oma has dared Chakwera to fulfil his promises on the bill arguing that two years is a long time considering urgent matter surrounding the bill.
“Was President Chakwera commitment national address on the matter real or political statement? Look, Members of Parliament (MPs) are ready to deliberate and pass the bill into law. But the challenges remains with DoDMA and Executive arm of government.
“We hear that there is no draft bill when all in all we have exhausted our energies for inputs that Malawi should have preparedness law on disaster. If there are gaps in the draft bill, Ministry of Justice could come to us than seating on it while disasters still striking hard, claiming lives,” worried Ng’oma.
Echoing on the same, Dr. Isaac Tchuwa of Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) observes that delaying in enacting the bill into the law poses threat to disaster prone areas.
“The new law mandates government to relocate people from risk disaster areas that whoever in disagreement, the same law punishes them. But this is not possible without enactment,” worried Dr.Tchuwa.
In October this year, DoDMA commissioner Charles Kalemba told The Maravi Post that the bill was at Cabinet Committe that come November-December 2022 budget review Parliament session, the bill would see light of the day.
But noting of that sort happened as the budget review meeting came to an end on Friday, December 16 without even showing the bill on the order paper.
This publication understands that some politicians and government officials are benefiting from disasters that the law will put to stop unnecessary public resources expenditures.
If the bill is enacted into law, government will be mandated to have clear budget vote on disasters, proper relocation of people from prone disasters areas among others things.
Below is the full CISONECC Press statement of delays of DRM bill enactment:
NON-STATE ACTORS’ COMMUNIQUE ON THE NEED TO URGENTLY FINALIZE
AND ENACT THE DRM BILL
The Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC) and partners, convened a
Stakeholders Meeting on the need to finalize and enact the Disaster Risk Management Bill on 24th
November 2022. The meeting brought together stakeholders from various sectors which include
Academia, Civil Society, Media, the Private Sector, and community representatives.
The engagement took place at a time the DRM Bill is yet to be tabled in Parliament despite the process
dating back to 2015.
As stakeholders in climate change and disaster risk management sector; We recognize the need for multi-stakeholder involvement in the formulation and implementation of various climate change and disaster risk management policy frameworks in Malawi with a particular focus on the implementation of the National Climate Change Management Policy, and the National Disaster Risk Management Policy.
We acknowledge the importance of the development and implementation of resilience policies in
facilitating the effective coordination, financing, and implementation of multi-sectoral programs
to avert the impacts of climate change in Malawi.
Malawi’s resilience framework calls upon all sectors and stakeholders to pursue a proactive and integrated way of reducing the impacts of climate change hazards through sustainable, innovative, and realistic strategies with strong partnerships and networks.
We commend the interest and the commitment of the Government of Malawi in participatory
formulation and implementation of the resilience policies and also the support of the development
partners through the provision of technical and financial support in developing policies and their
implementation.
We reiterate our unwavering commitment in the hunt for solutions that seek to reduce the impacts
of climate change and enthuse national resilience thereby mitigate impacts of disasters.
We understand that there is an interplay of constraining technical, financial, and political factors
and that there are some capacities and incapacities among us as stakeholders but we resolve to
come together and tap into each other’s strengths and efforts to enhance national resilience and
safeguard human dignity and a sustainable future.
We are concerned with resistance by the Government of Malawi to have the DRM Bill tabled in
parliament as evidenced by the back-and-forth engagements between the Department of Disaster
Management Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
We also lament that the Government of Malawi is losing a lot of resources in disaster related
expenses; a situation which can easily be abated by the provisions of the DRM Bill once enacted.
We, therefore, present the following demands in relation to the finalization and enactment of the
DRM Bill into law, as well as general disaster risk management;
- Depoliticize the DRM Bill
CSOs and Stakeholders in the DRM sector started advocating for the enactment of the DRM Bill
way back in 2017. There was a glimpse of hope when the draft bill was gazetted on 10th May 2019
that it would soon be enacted in the August House. Since then, there have been back-and-forth
discussions between DoDMA and the Ministry of Justice which have not yielded any tangible
outcome, an indication that the delay might be caused by a lack of political will.
The Government should seriously consider desisting from politicizing the DRM Bill and DRM
issues in the country.
The CSOs and stakeholders appeal that DoDMA should be independent of the political spheres’
interference, and the implementation of the bill needs to be free of political interference in all
forms and any relief items that the government is providing should not in any way carry the
political names, flags or colors. - Invest in Disaster Risk Reduction
In the past 3 years, Malawi has been hit by devastating Tropical storms that have rendered
thousands of people displaced, injured, and others dead, destroying their belongings and crop
fields. In times of these disasters, civil society organizations, the private sector, development
partners, and well-wishers always show their support by giving different forms of assistance. This
year, prior to Tropical Storm Ana, over MWK7 billion kwacha was mobilized for response and
recovery during and after the 2021/2022 rainfall season. 10 months after the Tropical Cyclones
Ana and Gombe, the country is yet to recover from the damages caused by the cyclones despite
spending a lot of funds. It is worrisome that such amounts are biased towards responding to the
recovery of communities from disaster effects and not towards reducing the vulnerabilities of
people and ecosystems at risk through disaster risk reduction.
Meanwhile, years have passed with CSOs still lobbying the Government to enact the Disaster Risk
Management Bill to pave way for investments in disaster risk reduction. It is evident that “fixing
the economic system in order to create wealth for Malawians” should include investing in the
DRM sector where Malawians lose wealth, which they amassed throughout the year to disasters
whose impact can be prevented. In addition, “fixing the agricultural system to achieve food
security for Malawians” must include investing in strong infrastructure for harvesting the runoff
water for irrigation purposes after the rainfall season rather than letting it loose and destroying
lives and livelihoods. Organizations and communities can implement climate change adaptation
interventions but there is a need for Government to redirect the focus from disasters to disaster
risk reduction! - Strengthen the Capacity for key actors in DRM
Stakeholders, including the CSOs, should play a role in ensuring that the community level, as well
as district level structures that have been put in place, are well-capacitated for the roles the bill and
policies provide for. The devolution plan should therefore be activated as soon as the bill is passed
and decentralization of the functions in the department should already be underway to ensure
smooth implementation of the Bill, since disasters are emergencies that are not planned. - Set up an Information Management System for Disaster Risk Management
Government through DoDMA and EAD as well as the CSOs working in the Climate Change and
DRM should ensure that they develop a comprehensive Information Management System (IMS)
to avoid providing conflicting information between the national level institutions and the
decentralized levels on reporting DRM issues. The IMS will facilitate the collection, storage,
organization, and dissemination of DRM information amongst stakeholders. It will also enhance
the utilization of information for informed decision-making, information analysis, and
visualization among others. The IMS will ensure that data and information are easily accessed
through an integrated, centralized IMS for transparency and stakeholder mapping.
CISONECC members, Board, Secretariat and its partners reaffirm its continued commitment to
assisting the Government of Malawi in addressing impacts of climate change and disasters through
risk management in partnership with the responsible Ministries and other stakeholders. We look
forward to the government taking positive action to consider the Draft DRM Bill as a matter of
urgency