Africafé : Advancing Natural Disaster Management Strategies in Africa

March 21, 2024

The profound impacts of natural disasters on lives, economies, and communities underscore the need for comprehensive understanding and proactive measures. These disasters disrupt livelihoods, displace populations, and strain resources, exacerbating vulnerabilities in both urban and rural areas. The economic toll is significant, hindering development efforts and causing long-term setbacks due to infrastructural damage. Drawing lessons from other countries like Brazil, Africa recognizes the imperative of building resilience in communities to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters. Implementing measures such as early warning systems, robust infrastructure, and community-based disaster preparedness initiatives can bolster resilience and minimize casualties. Moreover, investing in education and capacity-building programs further empowers communities to respond effectively to crises. By learning from Brazil's experiences, African nations are poised to strengthen their natural disaster management strategies and enhance their ability to withstand and recover from such adversities.

Speakers
Eduardo Amaral Haddad
Senior Fellow
Eduardo A. Haddad is Full Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he directs the Regional and Urban Economics Lab (NEREUS). He is additionally a Affiliate Professor at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI University. He also holds a position as Affiliate Research Professor at the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory – REAL – at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Rabat, Morocco. Prof. Haddad has published widely in professional journals on regional and interregional input-output analysis, computable general equilibrium modeling, and various aspects of regional economic development in developing countries; he ...
Ahmed Ouhnini
Economist, Policy Center for the New South
Ahmed Ouhnini is an Economist at the Policy Center for the New South. His research area covers agricultural economics, human and social development. Previously, he has worked as a researcher at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and has also a record of working in consulting services in Morocco. Ahmed holds an engineering Diploma in Agriculture and Rural Development from the National School of Agriculture of Meknes and a Master’s Degree in Law, Economics and Management from the Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne Institute of Development. ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    February 9, 2022
    The geographic position of Morocco and its history makes it a strategic country when it comes to matters of international migration. Having long been considered as a country of origin, the fast paced growing development of Morocco soon brought it from being merely a sending country to becoming a transit and destination to migrants from other parts of Africa. This change in the migratory context of Morocco has led to the adoption of a series of policies and governmental actions to ta ...
  • Authors
    February 3, 2022
    COVID-19 has ravaged nearly every country in the world, with the globalization of recent decades intensifying its spread. As of mid-2021, the world had spent $16.5 trillion—18% of global GDP—to fight the disease. And that amount does not even include the most important losses such as deaths, mental health effects, restrictions on human freedom, and other nonmonetary suffering. Nearly 90% of this spending was by developed economies, with the rest by emerging market and developing eco ...
  • January 31, 2022
    According to the Oslo Manual, innovation can be defined as “the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisations or external relations” (OECD, 2005, p. 46). For today’s middle-income countries in Africa, innovation is essential to sustain growth and promote the transition to high-income status. This paper begins by providing a summary of theore ...
  • Authors
    January 31, 2022
    It has been more than 100 years since Germany manifested colonial power, a dark period of history indeed. Political and military leaders, supported by its ruler, Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, committed crimes against humanity on African land.  The first genocide of the 20th Century, mass killings of 65 000 Herero in Africa, today known as Namibia. Between 1904 and 1908, Germany suffocated humanity in concentration camps like Shark Island, forcing them into dead ...
  • January 27, 2022
    Africafé est une émission du Policy Center for the New South qui décrypte l’actualité des organisations africaines et de l’Afrique. A travers de courtes interviews, l’émission tente de proposer d’aborder de manière pédagogique les enjeux des organisations africaines et l’actualité du co...
  • Authors
    January 24, 2022
    In January 2022, two UK-based oil companies, Chariot Limited and Predator Oil & Gas Holdings PLC, made positive announcements on two gas fields in Morocco. These natural gas discoveries generated considerable attention. This is often not surprising for a number of reasons: a hydrocarbon discovery (oil and natural gas) is an important event in itself given the prominence of hydrocarbons in global energy (oil and natural gas together account for around 60% of global energy consump ...
  • Authors
    January 24, 2022
    في يناير/كانون الثاني 2022، أعلنت شركتا التنقيب عن النفط والغاز، شاريوت ليمتد وبريداتور أويل آند غاز هولدينغ، المستقرتان معا في المملكة المغربية، أخبارا سارة حول رخصتين من رخصهما في البلاد. وقد أفاضت اكتشافات الغاز الطبيعي المذكورة الكثير من المداد. غير أن هذا الأمر ليس بالمفاجئ عموما، وذلك لعدة أسباب. حيث يعتبر اكتشاف الهيدروكاربونات (النفط أو الغاز الطبيعي) حدثا مهما في حد ذاته بالنظر إلى مكانة الهيدروكاربونات على الساحة الطاقية (يمثل النفط والغاز الطبيعي مجتمعين أقل من 60 في الما ...