Combating HIV and/or AIDS: A challenge to Millennium Development Goals for disaster managers in the Southern African Development Community.

Olivia Kunguma,Alice Ncube

doi:10.4102/jamba.v8i2.173

Abstract

Disaster management is a process of planning and implementation of measures involving multiple disciplines and sectors; hence Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot go unnoticed. Approximately 189 member states agreed to endeavour to achieve MDGs which should be accomplished by 2015. The purpose of this research was to establish the primary involvement of the disaster management fraternity within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in this agreement. SADC countries are the countries with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS and they feature on the disaster manager’s priority list of hazards, hence the focus on MDG 6 for this study. Various data gathering tools were employed and included making use of indicators developed by the United Nations to review disaster management statutes or civil protection statutes and scholarly documents on the progress of MDG 6. Structured interviews were carried out with heads of disaster management centres of SADC countries through the guidance of MDG 6 indicators. The main findings were that most statutes do acknowledge the fight against epidemics and most disaster managers are aware of MDG 6 and are involved in its achievement. It was recommended that disaster managers should be part of the Post 2015 MDG delegation.

Highlights

In the year 2000, the heads of 189 countries signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration to commit to the combating of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women by the year 2015 (United Nations 2010)
Commanding some action, it was significant for this study to review the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries disaster management statutes in relation to this study
The mentioning of nurses in the Namibian statute was a unique highlight, compared to other statutes, because nurses are considered as primary health caregivers when it comes to dealing with diseases

Summary

Introduction

In the year 2000, the heads of 189 countries signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration to commit to the combating of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women by the year 2015 (United Nations 2010). Disaster management plays a big role within a countries’ government service, of providing humanitarian assistance, and because of the nature of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the disaster management sector is likely to be expected to contribute immensely in the achievement of these goals. The disaster management fraternity encompasses non-governmental, governmental and private sectors which all contribute to humanitarian activities. For the purposes of this research, only the government sector will be explored. The government of a country oversees all the activities that are carried out by different organisations: national and international, private and non-profit making organisations, the signatories include heads of states. The term Disaster Managers as humanitarian officials is used in this research, in different SADC countries these humanitarian officials are given different titles

Objectives

Results

Conclusion