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On July 9, the Sierra Leone Office of National Security (ONS), IFRC and Sierra Leone Red Cross Society jointly organized the first of two planned workshops concerning legal preparedness for international disaster relief

Sierra Leone

In separate briefing sessions held in Dakar on June 16 and Abidjan on June 18, the IDRL programme shared ideas with senior staff of the National Red Cross Societies of Senegal (SRCS) and Côte d’Ivoire (CIRCS) on means to achieve implementation of the IDRL Guidelines in their countries.

New Disaster Risk Management Act adopted in Namibia

In July, representatives of the Namibian Red Cross and the Federation’s Africa IDRL Delegate met with Namibian officials in Windhoek to plan a new technical assistance project to help the government to assess its preparedness for international disaster assistance.

Some 25 government representatives and other stakeholders gathered in the Girassol Hotel in Maputo, Mozambique, on 18 November 2011 to discuss and review a legal research study conducted by the Mozambique Red Cross Society in cooperation with the IFRC.

In March 2005, IDRL Delegate for Africa, Eilif Torma, visited Maputo to discuss a future IDRL technical assistance project in the country, and to disseminate on the IDRL project and the IDRL Guidelines

As demonstrated by the floods of 2001 and 2007, Mozambique is a country highly vulnerable to disaster. However, while the country has made important progress in developing plans and institutional mechanisms for disaster response, it still lacks specific legislation to concretize its approach to disasters.

The importance of implementing good building codes has often been emphasised as a disaster risk reduction measure in countries prone to earthquakes.  However, the 7 November collapse of the 5-storey Melcom shopping centre in Accra, Ghana, highlights the importance of safe building more generally as a measure against such urban disasters.

In the first two weeks of March, a team of experts affiliated with the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) system visited the island nation of the Comoros on the invitation of the national authorities for a “preparedness mission” to assess the country’s systems for disaster response.