The Red Cross Red Crescent Indian Ocean Regional Intervention Platform and the Climate Centre last month signed an agreement to work together to prevent, prepare for, and respond to climate-related disaster.
The Red Cross Red Crescent Indian Ocean Regional Intervention Platform and the Climate Centre last month signed an agreement to work together to prevent, prepare for, and respond to climate-related disaster.
PIROI, set up in 1999 and led by the French Red Cross, groups National Societies and branches of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, La Réunion, Seychelles and Tanzania, as well as the IFRC and ICRC.
The south-west Indian Ocean group and the Climate Centre will now collaborate on joint activities and share research data in a bid to increase humanitarian effectiveness in the face of disasters and generally rising climate risk.
They will also pool resources in work to raise the awareness of vulnerable population groups to disaster risk and climate change through education and outreach.
« I’m in a stronger position to defend National Societies against hazards and climate change. »
“We small-island states are already seeing the impacts of climate change, mainly in coastal areas and with extreme events,” said Navin Mahadoo, in charge of risk reduction at the Mauritius Red Cross Society.
“Taking part in this training week has helped us understand all the technical terms and plan to make information available to the community, helping minimize disaster impacts.”
Colette Servina, Secretary General of the Seychelles Red Cross Society, said: “With this new knowledge, I feel I’m in a stronger position to defend our National Societies against hazards and climate change.”
Grace Mawalla, regional coordinator for the Tanzania Red Cross National Society, said she planned to share the new climate knowledge with colleagues, teachers and volunteers and work on creating plans for disaster prevention.
Greater resilience
The new agreement with the Climate Centre – an IFRC reference centre hosted by the Netherlands Red Cross in The Hague – means it will provide technical support on early warning and forecast-based financing as the PIROI group expand their programmes for the managing of climate-related disaster risk in the south-west Indian Ocean.
“We have to anticipate crises, use the data and information resulting from our institutions of research and metrological forecast, working with partners and governments to prepare people for greater resilience,” said Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Director of the IFRC’s Africa region, who also attended the sessions.
The training session, meanwhile, will also be helpful to National Societies wishing to engage on adaptation with their governments and other partners.