Countries urged to adopt disaster legislation

Southern African countries, hard-hit by recent droughts and floods, have been urged to adopt disaster management legislation to improve their response to emergencies. An agricultural economist, Andries Jordaan, told IRIN on Tuesday that the legislation should provide for setting up an early warning system and proactive prevention policies. Jordaan was at a three-day conference and exhibition on African Aid, Disaster Management and Relief, which opened in South Africa on Tuesday. "Each country's focus should be on risk reduction, rather than focusing exclusively on relief. South Africa, one of the few countries in Africa which has disaster management legislation in place, prioritises prevention," he noted. A two-pronged approach, built into the legislation to respond to both risk reduction and relief and recovery, had helped countries like France and the United States develop one of the most effective disaster management and response systems in the world, said Jordaan. The legislation should strengthen disaster response units at local government level, provide for periodic vulnerability assessments and the development of an early warning system. The legislation would "at least help all the stakeholders know who should respond when - which will help reduce the response time to a disaster quite considerably," he added. Southern African governments, which have struggled to cope with natural disasters and the HIV/AIDS crisis, should adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to address vulnerability when drawing up any policy. "These are the risk factors in this region [drought and HIV/AIDS] - we even encourage the private sector to take these issues into consideration while planning," Jordaan said.