The Ministers responsible for Agriculture, Energy, Water and Disaster Risk Management from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met virtually on 14 May 2024 to discuss sectoral impacts of El Niño induced drought and floods ahead of the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government.
The meeting was chaired by His Excellency General Eugénio Laborinho, Minister of Interior of the Republic of Angola and Chairperson of the Joint Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture, Energy, Water and Disaster Risk Management.
His Excellency General Laborinho expressed concern over the sectoral impact of El Niño, particularly highlighting the El Niño climate condition has led to water scarcity thereby triggering food insecurity in the SADC region whose economy is largely agriculture based. He called for solidarity and coordinated efforts, involving all relevant sectors, to tackle the impacts of El Niño induced drought and floods.
The Executive Secretary of SADC, His Excellency Mr. Elias M. Magosi highlighted that the impacts of the El Niño are interconnected and continue to manifest across multiple sectors. He cited as example that, as a result of the low water levels, some Member States have already embarked on long hours of electricity load shedding, thereby negatively impacting the socio-economic fabric and productivity of the SADC region.
H.E. Magosi underscored the importance of the collaboration among different ministries and sectors to leverage synergies from various ministries and facilitate integrated planning and harmonised interventions to address the adverse impacts of the drought and floods which have left an estimated 56.8 million people in the SADC region food insecure.
The meeting was attended by representatives of United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET). The Joint Meeting of Ministers responsible for Agriculture, Energy, Water and Disaster Risk Management was held in preparation for the upcoming meeting of the Council of Ministers to be held on 19 May 2024 and followed by the Extraordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government on 20 May, 2024 to discuss the humanitarian situation necessitated by the El Nino induced drought and floods.