DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND RESILIENCE BUILDING MEASURES IN THE CONTEXT OF DISPLACEMENT

1. DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND RESILIENCE BUILDING MEASURES IN THE CONTEXT OF DISPLACEMENT PRESENTATION BY GORDON MUGA AT THE NANSEN INITIATIVE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA REGIONAL CONSULTATION MEETING AT BOMA-HOTEL NAIROBI ON 23RD MAY 2014

2. STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION • Background • Legal and institutional frameworks in addressing disaster risk reduction in Kenya • Resilience building measures in the context of displacement • What needs to be done • Challenges

3. BACKGROUND • The most prevalent disaster risks that communities in Kenya face include natural phenomena such as drought, floods, landslide, fires and effects of climate change. • Other risks involve health related disasters epidemic outbreaks e.g. malaria and HIV/AIDS. • Man made risks such as road accidents, technological accidents and ethnic violence are a major concern

4. 2. LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS IN ADDRESSING DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN KENYA Kenya has made disaster risk reduction a national and local priority with strong institutional framework through; • Acts of parliament • Legislation • Presidential decrees and gazette .

5. Some of the policies and Acts • National feed policy 1981 and 1984 • Refugees Act 2006 • IDP policy 2012 • National peace building and conflict management policy • Draft policy on disaster risk management 2013 • National food and nutritional policy 2007 • Arid and semi-arid lands development policy • Urban development policy • Gender policy • Social protection policy

6. Kenya unanimously voted the 2010 constitution in which disaster risk management has been anchored • The fourth schedule of our constitution on distribution of functions between the national government and the county government spells out disaster management for two layers of governance. • This will ensure that risks and hazards that mostly affects our people at the community level are addressed and responded to appropriately; further more our structure of national governance(formerly provincial administration) mandated with implementation of government policies is undergoing restructuring and to date has been vested with executive powers to ensure that emerging risks are addressed • In the vision 2030, disaster risk management is one of the pillars being addressed to help protect the development gained so far and future development

7. RESILIENCE BUILDING MEASURES IN THE CONTEXT OF DISPLACEMENT A good example of disaster risk reduction programme is the western Kenya community based flood mitigation project to address Budalangi flood problem Other resilience building measures include; • Decentralized constituency development funds • Women trust funds, to assist women in business and development activities • The youth funds and kazi kwa vijana programmes to empower the youth • The government has mainstreamed disaster risk reduction in her development and sectoral planning agenda • County governments have mainstreamed disaster risk reduction in their integrated county development plans

8. 4. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE • To engage members of parliament more on DRR issues as peoples representation and also legislation • Have relevant policies in place

9. 5. CHALLENGES • Inadequate research on disaster risk reduction to inform policy. • Inadequate specialized human resources on disaster risk management. • Inadequate technical capacity at the community level on disaster risk reduction activities

10. THANK YOU