An enthusiastic group of Red Cross and Red Crescent representatives from all over the African continent gathered in Addis Ababa from 11 to 13 November to improve their skills in disaster law advocacy. Through a range of practical exercises, participants from African national societies, IFRC regional and country offices and ICRC were challenged to develop the most effective means to approach and support their authorities to strengthen their legal frameworks for disaster risk management.
Ahmed Elgundi Nasir of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society noted that the training provided “the opportunity to identify some of the challenges we face in our disaster management work, in particular in disaster response, and I realized that many of the challenges we face to deliver efficient disaster response in my country are related to the fact that we lack a comprehensive disaster risk management law. After this training our team feels much more prepared to embark upon our planned disaster law project.”
“Being in the middle of implementing the disaster law project in the Gambia, it was very enriching to learn about the experiences from other National Societies and to get ideas on how we can be even more effective when we try to advocate for disaster law in my country. It was also very enriching that the training methodology adopted was meaningful and learners centered,” added Buba Darboe, Project Manager in the Gambia Red Cross Society.
The training was part of a series of efforts by the IFRC Disaster Law Programme in Africa to build capacity and strengthen peer-to-peer support among African National Societies on this important issue.