Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) is consulting communities and district and city councils on the development of a tailor-made project that will succeed the disaster risk management for resilience (DRM4R) project.

The DRM4R is a five-year project that started in 2019 with funding and technical support from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Currently in its final year of implementation, the project sought to build communities’ resilience through, among others, strengthening capacity of national and local level actors in effective disaster risk and resilience governance.

Speaking on Friday in Karonga District, Dodma director of recovery and resilience Peter Chimangeni said the department is committed to implementing people-centred projects for resilient communities.

“We don’t want to impose disaster risk management projects on communities and councils.

“We are using the bottom-up approach for the development of a successor project with emphasis on understanding the needs of the most vulnerable. Communities have a better understanding of the challenges they face and can suggest better solutions that will contribute to building their resilience to climate-related shocks.”

Karonga District Council acting director of planning and development Khumbo Mkandawire commended Dodma for the consultations which are being led by Dr. Sivendra Michael, a disaster risk reduction and resilience adviser from the Pacific region.

“It is encouraging that the consultations are not only being held at district, but also traditional authorities’ level,” he said.

The consultations, which are being held in collaboration with the UNDP, will also be conducted in Mzuzu, Ntchisi, Salima, Mangochi and Chikwawa.

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