LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC) with its stakeholders are pushing for a new Disaster Risk Management Policy (DRM) that has full resources while implementing sustainably without waiting disasters to strike.
CISONECC told the civil society consultation meeting on Thursday, December 9, 2021 that the just ended 2015 DRM policy lacked resources while not tallying with international disaster protocols including Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015 -2030).
CISONECC National Coordinator Julius Ng’oma told the review meeting Malawi should strive for effective policy that is aligned with the much awaited DRM law for addressing disasters sustainably.
Ng’oma expects the new policy that will give strategy for serious local resources mobilization without much dependency on developing partners, donors.
“We want the new policy that speaks to the yet to be law in-terms of addressing risk without waiting disasters to strike then react. We need a policy will be fully funded with locally available resources without always donors.
“We expect also the policy that meets international protocols including Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction (2015 -2030) for action,” says Ng’oma.
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA)’s Chief Economist Officer Boyd Amela agrees that the just expired DRM policy met resources constraints.
Amela however was quick to point out achievements in public raising awareness on disaster risk management at local levels for actions.
He therefore assured the nation that DRM bill will be soon passed into law that resources be given a priority for the policy and strategies implementation.
The review meeting attracted participants from government agencies, communities, civil society, academia and the media.
For effective participation of the civil society in disaster risk management, the need for knowledge and understanding on international and local instruments that guide disaster risk management hence the civil society consultation meeting to input into the process of DRM Policy review and Dissemination of the Sendai Framework for Action.
CISONECC with support from Irish Aid through Trocaire is therefore implementing the Resource Rights
Programme (RRP); Climate Advocacy Project (CAP) which aims at ensuring that people living in
poverty particularly women and children benefit from the sustainable use of natural resources.
Through this project, CISONECC has been supporting the Government of Malawi to see to it that
relevant policies in Malawi and internationally are advanced to support poor farmers’ right to access
and manage resources and to build resilience to climate shocks.
In this regard, CISONECC supported the development of the Disaster Risk Management Policy which was adopted in 2015.
With the policy’s span coming to an end in 2019, the Government of Malawi is in the process of
reviewing the process and developing a successor policy.