Lake Chad Basin Initiative

Millions of people in the Lake Chad Basin Region face challenges related to compromised livelihoods and food and nutrition insecurity; insecurity; population movement; deteriorating socio-economic indicators and high population growth rates, among others. UNICEF estimates that over one million children have been forced out of school due to armed conflicts in the region. IFRC proposes to build a common approach to address the current humanitarian crisis in this region.

There is a critical need to respond to the immediate needs of households while concurrently building longer term resilience to break the cycle of vulnerability and stabilize livelihoods to reduce the risk of households slipping back to emergency state.

1. Convening, co-ordinating, and mobilizing;
2. Localization of aid;
3. Leveraging branches as centres of resilience and volunteers network;
4. Risk management and mitigation.

Southern Africa

Many of the vulnerabilities that exist in Southern Africa arise from prolonged exposure to deep-rooted inadequate capacities to cope with shocks resulting from natural disasters, poverty, conflict and political unrest.
To break a cycle of crisis-response, high risk areas across Southern Africa will be supported to become more resilient to natural disasters through a four-pillar programming approach focused on:

1. community and household long term preparedness and resilience;
2. life-saving and livelihoods interventions following crises;
3. national Society preparedness, coordination and knowledge management;
4. innovation and application of risk reduction and risk burden sharing systems.

Climate Change

According to the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR5), Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change due to its high exposure to climate stress and low adaptive capacity (e.g., poor infrastructure, limited access to markets, high illiteracy rates).
Many of the projected impacts of climate change are amplifications of natural climate variability, which already pose significant challenges to vulnerable communities.
This is true for Tanzania and Malawi, the two African countries selected for the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) Adaptation Programme in Africa that was implemented from 2014 to 2017.
For these countries, climate change impacts are anticipated to be felt through increased frequency and severity of extreme events; therefore, better managing the risks associated with climate variability provides an immediate opportunity to adapt to future climate change.