The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, in collaboration with the Government of Togo and support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has launched a high level five-day regional training on Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) in Lomé, Togo.
The training aims to enhance disaster recovery capacities and establish resilient recovery practices in the 15 ECOWAS Member States.
The training will also contribute to strengthening the PDNA and DRF Roster of Experts hosted by the ECOWAS Commission.
The ECOWAS region has been severely affected by disasters and climate change impacts, with floods and droughts being the most severe hazards, affecting about 100 million people over the last 40 years.
“Unfortunately, Togo has not been spared either, as recurrent floods and droughts exacerbated by climate change have caused tremendous hardship for the population in recent years,” the representative of the Minister of Security and Civil Protection of the Government of Togo, Colonel Akobi Messan stated.
“Our collective ability to respond to and recover from disasters is critical for protecting hard-earned development gains and for ensuring a better quality of life for all, particularly in the fragile settings of the West Sahel and Lake Chad Basin,” said the Programme Officer for Child Rights and Child Protection at the Directorate of Humanitarian and Social Affairs of the ECOWAS Commission, Ali Tiloh Bassasso Essossinam.
She further emphasized that “PDNA is a comprehensive, coordinated, and integrated methodology to assess disaster effects and impacts, identify needs, and build a strong recovery strategy and framework.”
The two weeks training has two sessions; French and Portuguese, May15 – 19, while the English session will take place from May 22-25 respectively and participants include national government representatives from agencies of disaster management, civil protection, planning, gender, and other sectors within the Member States.
The Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Togo, Seynabou Diaw Ba, expressed gratitude to the Government of Togo and the ECOWAS Commission for their unwavering support and efforts in organizing the training, and to the European Union for their generous support, which made the workshop possible under the Project on Strengthening Capacities for Crisis Assessment and Recovery Planning Project.
“UNDP stands fully committed to ensuring that our efforts through our partnership with the ECOWAS Commission are aligned with the aspirations and actions of the African continent and the region,” Ms. Diaw Ba concluded.
