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Risk-informed Development to Foster Climate and Disaster Resilience in the Sahel

Nouakchott, 25 August – Some 50 participants from seven countries in the Western Sahel and Lake Chad Basin took part in an interactive training on integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into development decision-making in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on 23–25 August, the first of its kind in West Africa, at the invitation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Sweden in partnership with the ECOWAS Commission.

“In practice, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation complement each other; they are two sides of the same coin with a common goal, which is to reduce the vulnerability of communities to current and future extreme weather events,” explained Anna Tjärvar, Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Addis Ababa and Programme Officer for Environment, Climate Change and Renewable Energy in a video address.

The high costs of the impacts of disasters and climate change related to droughts, fires, floods, and epidemics justify a different approach to development that considers the multiple underlying risks to which people are exposed.

“Development gains remain fragile and are being challenged by new threats, including the impacts of climate change. These threats are interconnected, crossing national borders, and occurring simultaneously,” said Cheikh Fall, United Nations Resident Coordinator a.i. in Mauritania

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