Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Burundi
On Tuesday September 26, 2023, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Mr. Ferdinand BASHIKAKO opened a regional workshop for capacity building and experience sharing on resilience to shocks. The Member States of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and disasters, held in Bujumbura, at the Kiriri Garden Hotel which was organized by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in collaboration with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) .
In the various speeches delivered by the Representative of the African Union for the Great Lakes Region and the Head of the AU Liaison Office in Burundi H.E SGHAIR M’BARECK SAID, the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Burundi Mr. Abdou Dieng, the Head of Disaster Risk Management and Adaptation to the Climate Change Department, Mr. Semingar NGARYAMNGAYE, the Special Envoy of the Chadian President to the Population and the Member of the APRM Panel of Eminent Personalities Mr. Ali A. HAGGAR, the Director of Evaluations Country APRM Secretariat Ms. Rachel MUKAMUNANA who represented the Director General of the APRM Continental Secretariat, they all returned to the objective of that the workshop which is the capacity building and the sharing of experiences on the resilience of States to the shocks and to the disasters and that the workshop is being held at a time when the ECCAS countries are constantly facing several disasters which highlight the vulnerability of the region. Here they cited the volcanic eruptions in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), floods in Burundi and Rwanda, as well as the cases of drought in Chad. All those disasters have an impact on the food system as well as its production chain. It should be noted that with regard to the resilience of food systems, the food demand is expected to increase by 80% by 2050.
In his speech, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Mr.Ferdinand BASHIKAKO pointed out that “the frequent and recurring disasters have encouraged the African heads of State of the APRM to adopt the resilience of States to the shocks and disasters in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) governance assessment questionnaire during the 30th virtual forum held in 2021.
“The meeting which brings together 11 ECCAS countries is a manifestation of interest that the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) continental Secretariat and the Economic Community of the Central African States (ECCAS) commission are showing on the issue linked to the shocks and disasters,” Permanent Secretary added.
Mr. Ferdinand BASHIKAKO said that the main objective of the workshop is to bring together the experts from the ECCAS member States with a view to sharing experience on possible ways of addressing key issues and reducing the disasters in member states. It was also about the raising awareness among a larger number of State and non-State actors of the need to strengthen the political commitment to more meaningful public participation.
The two days of that workshop were marked by the exchanges of ideas in the risk prevention and disaster management and the presentations by the Representatives of the different International Organizations working in the sector of environmental protection and civil protection including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), African Union (AU), The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as those of experts from the National Platform for the Risk Prevention and Disaster Management from nine countries which were able to participate in that workshop, namely Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad Democratic Republic of Congo.