Africafé : Advancing Natural Disaster Management Strategies in Africa

March 21, 2024

The profound impacts of natural disasters on lives, economies, and communities underscore the need for comprehensive understanding and proactive measures. These disasters disrupt livelihoods, displace populations, and strain resources, exacerbating vulnerabilities in both urban and rural areas. The economic toll is significant, hindering development efforts and causing long-term setbacks due to infrastructural damage. Drawing lessons from other countries like Brazil, Africa recognizes the imperative of building resilience in communities to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters. Implementing measures such as early warning systems, robust infrastructure, and community-based disaster preparedness initiatives can bolster resilience and minimize casualties. Moreover, investing in education and capacity-building programs further empowers communities to respond effectively to crises. By learning from Brazil's experiences, African nations are poised to strengthen their natural disaster management strategies and enhance their ability to withstand and recover from such adversities.

Speakers
Eduardo Amaral Haddad
Senior Fellow
Eduardo A. Haddad is Full Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he directs the Regional and Urban Economics Lab (NEREUS). He is additionally a Affiliate Professor at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI University. He also holds a position as Affiliate Research Professor at the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory – REAL – at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Rabat, Morocco. Prof. Haddad has published widely in professional journals on regional and interregional input-output analysis, computable general equilibrium modeling, and various aspects of regional economic development in developing countries; he ...
Ahmed Ouhnini
Economist, Policy Center for the New South
Ahmed Ouhnini is an Economist at the Policy Center for the New South. His research area covers agricultural economics, human and social development. Previously, he has worked as a researcher at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and has also a record of working in consulting services in Morocco. Ahmed holds an engineering Diploma in Agriculture and Rural Development from the National School of Agriculture of Meknes and a Master’s Degree in Law, Economics and Management from the Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne Institute of Development. ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    September 15, 2025
    The October 2025 general elections in Tanzania unfold within a political culture grounded in consensus and institutional continuity. President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s leadership has reopened political space by restoring elite dialogue, easing restrictions on rallies, and facilitating the return of exiled figures. Yet the exclusion of CHADEMA—the principal opposition party—highlights the enduring limits of pluralism. This paper analyzes the Tanzanian electoral process less as a convent ...
  • Authors
    Soukaina Raoui
    September 12, 2025
    This Paper was originally published on springer.com This paper provides an in-depth analysis of socio-economic convergence across communes in Morocco, focusing on monetary poverty and educational inequalities. This research investigates the impact of the well-known territorial and inclusive development policies of the National Initiative for Human Development on the catch-up process. We explore the data from the last two general population and housing censuses (2004 and 20 ...
  • Authors
    Fadoua Ammari
    September 12, 2025
    The Atlantic Initiative, announced by King Mohammed VI in November 2023 to provide landlocked Sahelian countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean via Moroccan territory, promises to profoundly reshape the bilateral relationship between Rabat and Nouakchott. This research paper examines how this unprecedented project creates new strategic opportunities while raising shared challenges for Morocco and Mauritania. Diplomatically, the rapprochement around the Atlantic Initiative unfolds ...
  • September 11, 2025
    Ce travail apporte un éclairage critique sur l'alignement des dispositifs publics d'orientation des étudiants marocains à l'étranger avec les ambitions de développement du pays. Il interroge la capacité de ces mécanismes à transformer la mobilité étudiante d'une potentielle "fuite des cerveaux" en un véritable "gain de cerveaux". S'appuyant sur une étude de cas qualitative, nous avons mené une analyse de contenu systématique (cartographie) de 204 programmes promus par le ministère d ...
  • September 10, 2025
    This Policy Paper analyzes Jacob Zuma’s July 2025 visit to Morocco as a revealing episode in the reconfiguration of South African foreign policy. Far from being mere protocol issue, the event activated multiple registers of mobilization—anti-apartheid legacy, territorial integrity, and diplomatic coherence—while shifting a dossier long confined to elites into the public sphere. Drawing on a corpus of 2,200 posts on X, and 20 South African press articles, the study shows that the con ...
  • Authors
    Loubna Eddallal
    September 8, 2025
    This paper explores the evolving legal, geopolitical, and technical dynamics surrounding the extension of the coastal shelf of Atlantic African states beyond 200 nautical miles under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). As several coastal states pursue rights over seabed areas beyond their exclusive economic zones, the paper highlights the growing strategic importance of these claims for resource access, particularly hydrocarbons and minerals, and maritime b ...
  • September 3, 2025
    Ce Policy Paper analyse la visite de Jacob Zuma au Maroc en juillet 2025 comme un épisode révélateur des recompositions de la politique étrangère sud-africaine. Loin d’une simple question de protocole, l’événement a activé des registres de mobilisation multiples — fidélité à l’héritage anti-apartheid, intégrité territoriale, cohérence diplomatique et a déplacé un dossier longtemps confiné aux élites vers l’espace public. À partir d’un corpus de 2 200 publications sur X et de 20 arti ...
  • Authors
    September 2, 2025
    In 2019 - well before the onslaught of COVID-19 and the wars in Europe and the Middle East - the central thesis of a policy paper by this author, analyzing the relationship between Africa and the Caribbean, characterized it as one of missed opportunity due to the lack of consistent, meaningful engagement between the two regions - despite the relationship’s special significance given their shared history. Underinvested: The Caribbean African Relationship (PCNS 2019) chronicled the li ...