Mr Jama and the Executive Director

IGAD-FAO Partnership Programme on Resilience (PP)

From 16 to 17 November 2014 in Khartoum, the Intergovernmental Authority on Develop (IGAD) held its Third Steering Committee Meeting for the Regional Platform for the Drought Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI. The meeting was chaired by H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, Executive Secretary of IGAD and the H.E. Eng. Ibrahim Hahmoud Hamid, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation in Sudan. It was well attended by over 70 representative from the seven IGAD member states, Development Partners, Civil Society, Donors and the UN agencies. In addition to giving partners an opportunity to discuss related initiates, updates on the IDDRSI platform and implementation of resilience activities at country and regional level were presented. A resolution on the way forward for the IDDRSI platform activities was also drafted and adopted.

On the 18 November 2014, the H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, Executive Secretary of IGAD visited with Dr Abdi Jama, FAO Representative at the FAO office in Khartoum. This was an opportunity to discuss the preparation of the IGAD-FAO Partnership Programme on Resilience (PP) whose conceptualization is embedded in IDDRSI, which provides a common framework for government, humanitarian and development partners to build the resilience of populations frequently affected by drought. The PP is specially crafted to operationalize and implement key aspects of IDDRSI through a trust fund mechanism that will support policy dialogue and community level investments. The trust fund mechanism is expected to increase participation of relevant stakeholders especially communities and governments in the planning and implementation of demand driven processes by enhancing the flexibility of funds and the response to community and government priorities. Through this trust fund and other elements of the programme, efforts will be made to ensure good coverage and coordination, particularly of cross border and regional investment and policy issues. The IGAD and FAO teams will initiate the work in Sudan this November 2014.   The IGAD ES also informed the FAOR on the upcoming launch of the Resilience Analysis Unit and encouraged FAO Sudan to take full advantage of the facility. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) has established a Resilience Analysis Unit (RAU) that will support the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative.

The overall objective of the RAU is to contribute to the efforts by IGAD and Member States aimed at measuring resilience at household, community, national and regional levels; as well as support capacity development within member states for conducting resilience analysis to inform policy and help improve the effectiveness of interventions in reducing vulnerabilities.