The African Union (AU) says it will continue helping its member States, including Malawi to better manage, plan and respond to natural disasters in a timely and more efficient manner.
AU African Risk Capacity director of policy and technical services Ekhosuehi Iyahen said this on Friday during a sensitisation meeting on disaster management and response in Lilongwe.
She said the aim of the meeting was to sensitise the public about the governments’ engagements and participation in the African Risk Capacity for the stakeholders to get an understanding of the process as well as the nature of engagements and partnership between the African Risk Capacity and governments.
Iyahen said the AU was working with the member States to respond rapidly when citizens experience harvest failure to make informed decisions to support better risks management in the countries.
She said: “Malawi has been a strong member of ARC since 2012 when it signed the treaty at the AU level and in 2015 government placed an insurance contract with ARC where it paid a premium to actually transfer a portion of drought risks specifically for climate impact on people and the cost to government as a result to those impact.”
In an interview on the sidelines of the meeting, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development director of planning services Alex Namaona said the meeting enabled both parties to share information on what triggered the late payment of $8.1 million to Malawi in 2015/2016 season.
African Risk Capacity is a specialised agency of the AU that is helping countries across Africa to prepare and respond to extreme weather events and protect food security for vulnerable populations.
It was established in 2012 by the AU and has since paid out $34 million to support communities in countries affected by drought, including Senegal, Niger Mauritania and Malawi. n
