Media representatives are invited to cover a SADC consultative meeting on preparedness and response to the impact of the El Niño weather event on agriculture, food and nutrition security in Southern Africa. The meeting will be held at the Southern Sun Hotel, OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa from 25 – 26 February.
The meeting will start at 9 a.m. A press briefing with key delegates will take place at 10 a.m. on Thursday 25th. A press conference will be held at 5.00 p.m. at the end of the meeting on Friday 26th.
Some 165 delegates from the agriculture, environment, food and nutrition, disaster management, climate change, water, health, planning and finance sectors from the 15 SADC member states are due to participate in the meeting which is being organised with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Other participants include representatives from the humanitarian, development and donor communities.
The meeting is being convened to help form a common understanding of El Niño and agree on essential actions and commitments on how to best prepare, respond and mitigate its impact through a coordinated, multi-sectoral regional approach. The meeting will:
provide a platform for member states and other stakeholders to share information on the impact of El Niño on agriculture, food and nutrition security, and other key sectors including health, water and sanitation;
review and endorse a regional scenario for southern Africa, including the most likely and worst case effects of El Niño over six months, and the possible impact of a future La Niña weather event later in 2016;
review and make recommendations to enhance national and regional preparedness as well as multi-sectoral programmes for short-term and resilience response actions to the El Niño and possible La Niña weather event; and
identify and agree on regional coordination and mitigation actions for the SADC Secretariat to pursue with the member states.
Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of World Food Programme (WFP).
Source: Apo-Opa
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