Regional Humanitarian Context
For a second consecutive year, the Southern Africa region witnessed a combination of floods and cyclones which battered nine countries in the region affecting more than a million people in Angola, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The regional harvest failures and a series of flooding and cyclones events have set the stage for a livelihood crisis in the southern African region. Many more people now live ‘close to the edge’, and relatively minor shocks such as a period of erratic rainfall at critical times during the cropping season can be enough to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe. This is due to an overall decline in livelihoods in the region as a result of poverty and high HIV and AIDS rates. The region remains at the epicentre of the global HIV and AIDS crisis, where countries continue to battle an AIDS epidemic affecting up to 10 percent of the adult population. An estimated 25 million people are infected with HIV.
What we do:
In response to these challenges, the Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) assists UN Resident Coordinators / Humanitarian Coordinators (RC/HC), UN Disaster Management Teams, Governments and international institutions in strengthening disaster management and response capacities. More specifically, this includes:
§ ensuring coordinated support to governments and their IASC partners in the form of surge capacity;
§ promoting regional cooperation to ensure effective response to humanitarian needs;
§ technical advice on humanitarian needs assessment;
§ humanitarian financing (CERF, flash appeals and consolidated appeals process (CAP);
§ information management (mapping and data preparedness);
§ public information (advocacy and resource mobilization), and
§ implementation of IASC policies including the cluster approach.
Where we work:
ROSA provides support and services to UN Country Teams in 14 countries: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.