Gaborone, 04 October, 2023 / 2:55 pm (ACI Africa).
Officials of Caritas entities in Conferences under the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) are advocating for multi-agency “close collaboration” to facilitate the fostering of resilience among community members at the grassroots.
In their September 30 statement following a Training of Trainers (ToT) on facilitating Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) in Gaborone, Botswana, officials of the Caritas entities say there are increasing disasters in IMBISA “negating the progressive gains of resilience slowly realized by local communities and, following interventions by state and non-state actors.”
They underscore the “need for close collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and national governments to enhance the continent-wide agenda at the grassroots level to resilience building.”
Some of the entities they have in mind for the envisaged collaboration include the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis Programme (RVAA).”
Officials of Caritas Angola, Caritas Botswana, Diocesan Caritas of Cape Town, South Africa, Caritas Eswatini, Caritas Lesotho, Caritas Mozambique, Caritas Namibia, Caritas Sao Tome & Principe, Caritas Zimbabwe, Caritas Africa and IMBISA General Secretariat say they also recognize the “importance of accompanying local communities to develop preparedness measures and build community resilience in collaboration with government and Civil Society networks.”
