SADC MINISTERS ADDRESS EL NIÑO-INDUCED DROUGHT CRISIS
Minister of Information and Media and Chief Government Spokesperson Hon. Cornelius Mweetwa, MP, is in Victoria Falls Town in the Republic of Zimbabwe where he is representing Zambia at the 5th Ordinary Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Disaster Risk Management in the SADC region.
Key Highlights from the Minister’s Statement:
✅️Noted that the SADC region is grappling with severe impacts of El Niño-induced droughts.
✅️Highlighted other effects as loss of lives, destruction of property, and increased human and animal displacements.
✅️Noted that according to SADC Synthesis Report indicates that 68 million people across the region will require humanitarian assistance between October, 2024 and March 2025.
✅️In Zambia’s case, according to the 2024 Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) Report, about 5.8 Million People are in phase 3 and 4 of the IPC and will need humanitarian assistance (from October 2024 to March, 2025).
✅️Noted that the region faces its worst energy shortages in decades due to reduced water levels in key reservoirs, including the Kariba Dam.
✅️ Indicated that Load management has become a norm, exposing reliance on hydro power and the need for alternative energy sources.
✅️ A comprehensive plan worth $1.4 billion was developed to among others, address the food insecurity and build resilience.
✅️ The Plan focuses primarily on:
(i) Provision of immediate life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance to 6.6 million people for a period of 14 months (June, 2024 to the next harvest period in 2025). Interventions include the distribution of relief maize, provision of community maize sale, emergency cash transfer, social cash transfer and screening for malnutrition; and
(ii) Enhancing coping capacities and strengthen resilience through early recovery interventions such as promotion of small-scale irrigation, building water resource management infrastructure such as dams and boreholes and structural changes such as the transition from hydro to solar power to diversify the energy portfolio.
Relief maize, emergency cash transfers, and malnutrition screening.
✅️ Small-scale irrigation, water infrastructure (dams, boreholes), and a transition to solar energy.
✅️Indicated that the current funding gap stands at $889 million.
✅️Zambia employs the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) cluster system for effective stakeholder coordination and accountability.
✅️ Informed the meeting that Zambia has mobilized $252 million for drought response in its 2024 budget.
✅️Indicated that the UN and INGO appeals have achieved only 15% of required funding.
✅️ Stressed that despite the severity of the drought, the situation has not deteriorated to unsustainable levels, a clear demonstration of the dividends of investing in resilience building.
✅️Called for SADC-grown solutions to ensure resilience in disaster management across all sectors.