Harmonizing Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Frameworks for Risk Informed Development Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Uganda and Malawi

Abstract

Increasing impacts of disasters and climate hazards have prompted Africa countries to develop national disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies with the aim of reducing mortality and other losses. However, disasters still have a significant impact on their populations, their livelihoods, and the infrastructure on which they depend. Furthermore, an increasing understanding of the need to address the root causes of risk has led to calls for greater coherence between strategies that focus on DRR, Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Development. There is acknowledgement of the existing implementation gap dividing the policy domains of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) at the national as well as international levels. This paper analyses the gaps and opportunities in design and implementation of policies and practices within the two domains and suggest measures to enhance their collaboration in Malawi and Uganda. Document analysis and interviews with 8 respondents over a period of one month were undertaken to gather the needed information. Fostering conceptual understanding of resilience, joint planning and implementation of similar activities through a common coordination mechanism were found to be essential for achieving coherence across the five thematic areas.