Africans pull financial resources to fight disaster
A two-day workshop on African Risk Capacity (ARC) project, which seeks to pull financial resources for African governments to fall upon to manage disasters is underway in Accra.
“This would provide African governments with timely, reliable resources in the event of severe drought.”
In an address read on his behalf, Mr William Kwesi Aboah, Minister of the Interior, said ARC would be one of the number of tools that governments could use to eliminate delays in disaster response due to lack of predictable funding.
Mr Aboah said the high cost of disaster response, limited budgetary, reallocation of government resources from planned development activities in times of crisis are the challenges, hence the need for long-term solutions.
“We need a communal approach to fight a common fate, and a combined resource would ensure that finance would be available for countries in trouble when they need it.”
He called for collaboration among stakeholders to respond to disasters effectively.
The workshop is being organised by the National Disaster Management Organisation in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the World Food Programme.
The aim of the workshop was to educate stakeholders about ARC risk pooling concept, risk modelling and Africa Risk View software as well as share ideas on how ARC and the Government of Ghana could facilitate the concept.
The Union is currently working toward establishing an African-owned, Pan-African Disaster Risk Pool called the African Risk Capacity which could potentially improve the efficiency of current responses to natural disasters.
Ms Jane Pearce, Chief Contingency Planning Director, ARC said the project forms part of AU move to develop an insurance package for member countries.
She said the impact of disasters on lives especially women, children and the disadvantaged in society is worrying as the education of pupils are curtailed, adding that the project would reduce the suffering of mankind.
Ms Fatou Diagne, Regional Programme Officer for West Africa, said the goal of ARC would enable Africa to better manage extreme climate change.
She said ARC is a software tool that allows financial management by bringing existing information on food security together to assess related risk using standard setting methodology designed design to provide quick distribution of funds.
About sixty participants from both bilateral and multilateral organisations as well as the Ministry of the interior are attending the workshop.
Source: GNA