from ALFRED SHILONGO in Windhoek, Namibia
Namibia Bureau
WINDHOEK, (CAJ News) – LEADERS in East and Southern Africa have met in Namibia to address the impacts of the El Niño-induced drought in the regions.
This comes amid realisation that regional cooperation and early action are key to addressing the challenges posed by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and other climate-related shocks on the continent.
The recent event, titled “Strategic Policy Directions on El Niño: Transformative Disaster Risk Reduction in Eastern and Southern Africa”, highlighted the devastating consequences of ENSO events on the region and compounding the impact of climate change.
Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), underscored the need for investing in inclusive early warning systems to mitigate the worst impacts of climate disasters.
He highlighted the importance of forecasting the impacts of ENSO across multiple sectors.
“When we do these climate outlook forums, where the early warning forecasts are delivered, we need to also bring in key sectors, look at what happened in previous events across sectors and have a better economy-wide anticipation of what is likely to happen,” Kishore explained.
The impacts of the 2023/2024 El Niño episode have been significant, with over 61 million people affected by the drought in Southern Africa and an additional 5 million people affected by flooding in Eastern Africa.
This most recent ENSO episode was one of the five strongest in recent history, making Africa one of the most affected regions globally.
Droughts in the region are attributed to climate change.
– CAJ News