DISASTER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS: DISASTER RISK REDUCTION 2009
We, members of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa having gathered at the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa’s Conference: Disaster Risk Reduction 2009, at the Elangeni Hotel, Durban from 7 to 9 October 2009, and;
We note the continued and increasing number of deaths experienced around the world due to increased disasters of all kinds, and believe that the Institute must continue to encourage all practitioners, from every field participating in disaster risk reduction, to intensify their efforts to creating a disaster free society.
We note that without the efforts of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa we as practitioners would be less capacitated to reduce disaster risk.
We wish to express our sincere condolences and sympathy to all who have been negatively impacted on by major incidents and disasters which have caused death, injury and destruction.
We extend our appreciation to the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa for arranging another conference aimed at increasing our knowledge and our capacity to deal with reducing disaster risks and increasing our ability to respond to disasters which occur.
We commend the efforts of all agencies, government, provincial, municipal, non-governmental agencies and stakeholders who, through constant effort and persistence, are making positive inputs into reducing disaster risk. We also commend those agencies who have given of their time, effort and resources to improve the risk profile of the country and improve response actions which have resulted in the saving of lives.
We appeal to all government agencies to implement a system of co-operative governance in order to ensure effective implementation of Disaster Management legislation and in particular urge District and Local Municipalities to consider all the issues around capacity and responsibility of the function.
We the members at the Annual General Meeting of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa express the opinion that;
1. DMISA must continue to make greater strides to market the Institute and the function to Africa.
2. That the development of early warning systems, across all fields related to reducing disaster risk, are encouraged.
3. DMISA acknowledges the support of the South African Weather Services in reducing disaster risk and urges all national, provincial and municipal authorities to utilize relevant resources in reducing disaster risk.
4. We acknowledge the fundamental role of poverty in vulnerability.
And take up the challenge for the eradication of poverty, by:
· Supporting and participating in research that will promote the understanding and awareness of poverty.
· Committing ourselves to support existing programmes aimed at poverty eradication and to strive to fill gaps in existing initiatives.
· Committing ourselves to strive to eliminate poverty as a priority issue on local, national and international agendas.
