The objectives of the Commission, as noted earlier, reflect its main activities and cover prevention, preparedness and response.
Prevention
Prevention activities are conducted to tackle root causes of vulnerability to
disasters and to promote food security. Employment Generation Schemes (EGS) are
the mechanisms through which relief is provided to be able bodied disaster
victims in exchange for work. EGS help build assets and reduce the vulnerability
of the affected populations to disasters.
Many development works have been undertaken in different regions using relief food. Relief focused NGOs have reoriented their approach towards linking relief and development. The development efforts currently being undertaken by Regional Government agencies towards overcoming famine conditions and attaining food self sufficiency have already demonstrated positive effects. The Government has furthermore formulated a Food Security Programme, for which EGS is a major instrument, to ultimately attain food security at the household level.
Preparedness
Several of the key preparedness components have been in place for some time.
At present, maximum efforts are being exerted to improve them, while new
modalities are being introduced. Through such efforts it is believed that
disaster victims would be better served and that the lives and livelihoods of
disaster victims would be protected. The major preparedness modalities include:-
The Early Warning System
An Early Warning System (EWS) has been in place since 1976 to monitor and warn
the threat of disasters ahead of time, and to trigger timely, appropriate, and
preventative measures. It monitors closely factors which affect food security at
household, woreda, regional and national levels.
The system is an inter-agency activity involving different relevant government institutions. It is led at the national level by a committee with the DPPC acting as its secretariat. Since 1993, The EWS has been decentralised in line with the regionalisation policy and bottom-up planning approach. Training in data collection for early warning and analysis has been given to functionaries at regional and lower levels.
As part of the regular activity of the programme, all relevant indicators of food security are monitored on a monthly basis culminating in an annual nation-wide pre and post harvest crop assessments. Pastoral assessments are also carried out in the livestock dependent regions, while disaster assessments are conducted in an emergency situation.
Early warning reports are regularly issued to Government, donors and the international community. Efforts are now underway to improve the system through the introduction of enhanced methodologies, and tools for data analysis. The system enhancement work which is in progress focuses on six major components: The monitoring of national food security, and crop, livestock, market and agro-meterology asssesments.
The Emergency Food Security Reserve
(EFSR)
The Emergency Food Security Reserve was established, in its present status,
in October 1992, to provide, on a loan basis, a readily available relief food in
times of emergencies.
Since its establishment, the EFSR has been operating successful and has created confidence among the donor community. It has proved to be an important preparedness strategy providing in-country food for immediate relief until requested relief food aid shipments arrive from overseas or are locally purchased.
The physical storage capacity of the Reserve has been upgraded to nearly 212,000 MT with an additional 79,000 MT of warehouse capacity planned for construction. The reserve stock has almost reached its mid-term target of 307,000 MT. At the same time, the grain mix in the Reserve has been diversified to accommodate the food habits of the population living in targeted areas.
Logistics
In the past, the Commission was transporting relief cargo
to different distribution sites by its own Emergency Relief Transport Units (RTP 1,2,3). In this effort, NGOs and
UN transport fleets had also played a significant role.
In line with the free-market economic policy of the Federal Government, however, the RTPs, NGOs and UN trucks have been privatised, and the DPPC has since then been able to effect the distribution of relief and other emergency items to disaster prone areas using the private sector trucks.
Given the poor infrastructure in the country, however, full reliance on the Private Sector for the transport of emergency relief is risky. Some of the disaster prone areas are not easily accessible, and, hence, are not attractive to private truckers. To minimise the risk of not reaching disaster victims in such areas, the Government has recently established a strategic transport fleet, consisting of trucks with the right configuration for tackling difficult terrain.
In order to improve the overall relief transport and logistics co-ordination in the country, efforts are also being made to develop a logistics master plan. Other improvements in this area include infrastructural development, such as warehouse construction, and establishment of a well networked logistics information system.
The National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Fund
(NDPPF)
A National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Fund has
been established to cover funding shortfalls of regions in their efforts to link
relief with development programmes. The fund will provide withdrawal rights to
regions to support relief programmes based on prioritised needs in the event
that such programmes can not fully be resourced from regular budget sources.
Substantial progress has been made towards the creation of the fund: the Government has allocated US$ 8.3 million, and USD 287, 400 has been secured from donors. Moreover, a Board of Management for the NDPPF has been formed and has assumed its duties. A study on the managerial and procedural elements of the Fund is soon to be finalised.
National Non –Food Contingency Stock
The traditional focus at the DPPC has been on
drought-related emergencies and food based response. However, the widespread
occurrence of disasters such as floods and epidemics, the loss of life and
property damage, and the economic and social disruption which they cause have
been such that the current state of preparedness (in terms of area-specific
plans, stock of non-food emergency items, procedures, etc.,)
For such disasters has been found to be inadequate. Hence, the need for more effective non-food response capacity building has become apparent.
This task calls for action to be taken to strengthen the emergency preparedness capability of the country through the establishment of a national contingency stock of essential materials in order to build up a quick intervention capacity when disasters occur. In this regard, the first measure to be taken is to immediately embark on building the stock initially through pooling of available resources. Subsequently, the gap will be filled by mobilising additional resources.
Emergency Responses
Emergency interventions are undertaken with the aim of
saving lives and livelihoods. The first phase includes the provision of food,
shelter and medical services to victims of disasters, and every effort is made
to make the response timely so as to prevent the disposal of key assets. The
second response comprises, where and when it is needed , the provision of farm
inputs such as draught oxen, seeds and hand tools in cropping areas, and
restocking of depleted livestock herds in pastoral areas.