By Nyasha Mutena.
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of The South) – The Eastern and Southern African region has been impacted by recurrent natural disasters which have largely resulted in food and water insecurity, loss of lives and livelihoods, displacement of people, loss of assets among other direct impacts especially on the most vulnerable groups of society.
Much of the damage that has been propagated by disasters has not been chronicled to the fullest extend all owing to a less capacitated and informed media and this is a necessity that needs to be rectified in order for journalists to develop expertise in the reporting of Climate Change and Disaster Risk Solutions.
At the African Risk Capacity workshop held in Harare recently, the issue of partnering the media and shifting its position from just reporters to becoming stakeholders in Disaster Risk Reduction was considered a matter of urgency as they are a cornerstone in information dissemination when disasters strike to such a level that they are a functional pre-requisite.
ARC, an innovative AU-driven financing solution to champion the growing frequency and severity of climate disasters is fast becoming an important step away from donor-dependency. It is an eye opener to African governments to understand that Capacity building and contingency planning processes contribute to a country’s capabilities in DRM, particularly at a technical level, and encourage cross-agency coordination.
Through its rigorous and comprehensive capacity building programme and index insurance mechanism, ARC is enabling Member States to build resilience and better plan, prepare and respond to extreme weather events by linking cutting-edge early warning technology with contingency planning and modern financial tools.
Its grasp of the gender disparities, River foods,eXtreme Facility will indeed go a long way in addressing the natural disasters that Africa is increasingly becoming susceptible to.
According to various meteorological findings, African countries are among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of natural disasters and extreme weather events, and they are likely to experience more severe and frequent extreme weather events in the future as a result of climate change.
Such events diminish economic growth, cause major budget dislocation, erode development gains and resilience, and increase the risk of political instability.
Speaking at the workshop ARC spokesperson Chinedu Moghalu said stakeholders in the Disaster Risk Reduction strategic positions need to understand that effective communication for development which takes place at grassroots level strengthens national capabilities.
“It is essential to understand the difference between institutional communication, which is a useful tool to publicize what we do and report on our actions, and communication for development, which is a process that takes place in the context of programmes at grassroots level.
“It is a form of communication which enables people to have a say, participate and develop a sense of ownership of the projects. This type of communication strengthens national capabilities.” Said Chinedu.
This, in essence is a clear revelation of how almost impossible achieving effective communication for development is without a good and well informed media.
Chinedu went on to say that institutional communication publicizes the activities, objectives and results of development cooperation.
Without any shadow of doubt, stakeholders would find that working with a trained media on the ground will facilitate multi-directional information flows that have psychological impacts for populations affected by cascading disasters and help to build resilience against future incidents.
Investing in the media capacity is tantamount to investing in the protection of socio-economic development gains which are crucial in dealing with the nature of disasters.
Also, a well-equipped media with a strong communication capacity enables effective dissemination of vital information to be relayed to mass audiences before, during and after a disaster which lays a solid foundation for better disaster preparedness, response and recovery and this inevitably culminates to community dialogue and building a more resilient society.
The media, through its various news dissemination platforms can provide the necessary leverage towards influencing policy debates. This will strengthen and give boost to public discourses for strategic disaster risk management and financing.
Stakeholders can take advantage of the well trained media’s ability to provide accurate and up to date information to citizens to save lives. When it is well informed, the media possesses the ability to manage the priorities of actors during these unfortunate times to ensure that citizen information needs are met.
It is conceivable to suggest that African media needs to be fully conscientized on risk capacity because currently there is lack of institutional capacity and participation in communicating the concepts of disaster risk management.
The media is an institution where capacities of its constituents must be strengthened continuously to respond to the communication and information needs of different institutions as well as address relevant developmental problems.
To capacitate media, several foundations and philanthropists who are already providing support and working with African Union structures, including the African Capacity could be strong and useful partners.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Emergency Response program which aims to reduce suffering, disease, and death in countries affected by natural disasters and complex emergencies could support this initiative to reap mutual fruits..
In addition to responding directly to emergencies, they work to help improve the speed and performance of first responders in the first critical hours of an emergency and also invest in strengthening the ability of first responders, their organizations, and local institutions to help communities prepare for and cope with future shocks and in this case the media’s role can never be overemphasized.
The Bill and Melinda Gates emergency program’s investments’ to strengthen it’s partners’ response capacity and equip them with innovative approaches and tools is also another vision it shares with the media therefore relations should be cemented to achieve disaster risk reduction.
Both rapid and slow-onset emergencies can erase hard-won development gains and hinder progress, significantly reducing community resilience.
Another crucial pillar which is dealing with disasters is The Japan International Cooperation Agency which offers support to ensure that it’s partners are better prepared to respond to, and recover from, emergency situations and help communities “build back better” with innovative tools and approaches.
It is mandated to help nations hard-hit by disasters to recover and aims to build a resilient society against future disasters through encouraging the “Build Back Better”, the concept of turning disasters to an advantage by creating a stronger country and society.
JICA also works to strengthen the effectiveness of local and national responders, organizations, and institutions that are inevitably the first responders because they are on the ground before international help arrives and are best placed to understand the needs of their communities. Against this background, JICA is strategecally positioned to partner African media and it would be rational to consider empowering African media to leverage on them to raise awareness and effectively communicate for development when disaster strikes.
The support JICA has shown various organizations should not leave the African media behind when sharing effective approaches with one another, developing disaster-planning programs, and cultivating leaders who will be able to act quickly and effectively during an emergency.
JICA implores the afflicted to take each disaster, though unfortunate, as an opportunity to build a more disaster-resilient society against future disasters, and this is a common goal it shares with and can execute fully with the help of the media.
The onus therefore lies with funders to consider engaging media as stakeholders not mere journalists in matters to do with Disaster Risk Reduction in order for them to become emergency responders who are capable of relaying vital information whilst informing targeted audiences the way forward and this shouts out to strengthening their capacity.
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