01-09-2021 | di COOPI

Sudan. A community perspective for disaster risk reduction

The rain that pours down every July on the areas of the Mayo refugee camp, on the outskirts of Khartoum (Sudan), is enough to flood houses and roads. But since last April, the inhabitants of the poorest neighbourhoods of the camp, through the project "Mayo Up: Resilience of vulnerable populations in the open areas of Mayo", financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), have organised themselves into 3 Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) community management committees and have started to study, analyse, devise possible solutions to not be unprepared for the various emergencies: floods, fires, food shortages or a new wave of COVID-19.

Floods, droughts, famine, fires, conflicts and instability make Sudan one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. The potential occurrence of such emergencies risks generating a repetition of interventions aimed at limiting damage once it has already been caused, further exacerbating the plight of the population. However, these activities are extremely necessary and COOPI has, for some years now, been distinguishing itself by spreading an approach that aims to facilitate the transition to greater security through Disaster Risk Reduction actions.

And therefore, in order to improve the resilience of the community, COOPI encourages the processes of disaster risk prevention, preparedness and mitigation; it organises training and works to find resources to improve the infrastructure (prevention) for storing useful materials to combat events, to help the families most affected (preparedness) and to intervene during emergencies (mitigation). Moreover, the organisation works with local (Jebel Awlia Locality) and national authorities (Civil Defence, Ministry of Infrastructure, Sudanese Meteorological Authority, Humanitarian Aid Commission-HAC) and other stakeholders (Sudanese Red Crescent) to activate an early warning system. Finally, in order to bring beneficiary and organisation together, COOPI will promote the implementation of ideas contained in the DRR Committees' Action Plans, making them available to the community of international aid organisations.