ABSTRACT
Britain’s Overseas Development Institute’s report, The Geography of Poverty, Disasters and Climate Extremes in 2030 , declares that poverty and disasters are closely connected and that terminating extreme poverty is contingent upon the governments of the poorest countries coming to terms with their increased risk of natural disasters. This is because there is a very close overlap between the countries that are expected to still have very high levels of poverty in 2030 and those most unprotected from natural vulnerabilities. 1
The African Union and the Regional Economic Communities have committed themselves to the goals of poverty alleviation and disaster risk reduction in their core mandates. Nonetheless, over 60 percent of Africans continue to live in abject poverty, in areas that are most at risk for disaster-induced poverty and on a continent that recorded 147 disasters in 2011 and 2012, causing economic losses of US$1.3 billion. 2 In 2012 alone, more than 34 million people were affected by drought and extreme temperatures, which compounded other vulnerabilities and hazards such as storms and disease transmission. 3
Africans are thus adversely affected by environmental disasters and are very vulnerable to the negative impacts of global climate change, such as declining harvests and suitable land for pasture, food insecurity, land degradation, spread of disease, and decreasing water supplies, and are without an effective central capacity to manage these problems. They therefore suffer from disproportionate numbers of deaths, transpositions, and destruction of infrastructure. With very few assets, a weak social safety net to help them cope with multiple and interdependent forms of vulnerability and catastrophes (hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, droughts, fl ooding, and biological hazards), and no insurance to cover the loss of their possessions, they are forced to live in locations that are subject to numerous risk factors. These places include unplanned urban areas, substandard informal housing and settlements on the periphery of cities, inaccessible rural areas with little or no effective early warning programs, and locations near infrastructure that is easily damaged when natural disasters strike.
