On the 26th of October, the DANWADAAG programme organized a Roundtable Discussion on Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Hargeisa. This event marked the official launch of the DANWADAAG programme in Somaliland. After an interesting debate, the Advisory Committee of the programme was announced. The successful event was attended by a total of 42 participants, of which 8 were females, all from different stakeholders of the programme, representing governments, CSO’s and Media organizations.

The Resident Programme Coordinator started the event by welcoming the participants of the workshop. He introduced VNG International’s Deputy Director, who gave an introduction about the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and encouraged the DANWADAAG stakeholders to give high priority to the implementation of the programme. “The DANWADAAG consortium, and lead VNG International, is committed to delivering high-quality results and we are expecting and encouraging you to also deliver the same. The disasters are increasing day after day and this requires a collaborative way of solving them,” mentioning the importance of cooperation between the different stakeholders.

Following this introduction, the DANWADAAG programme was discussed in more detail.. The RPC elaborated on the different workshops that will be organized throughout the programme and explained the objectives to the participants. Afterwards, Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, emphasized the importance of the DANWADAAG programme through a pre-recorded video. This message was underlined in different other speeches that followed, given by key programme stakeholders, who also mentioned that they are excited to learn more about the inclusiveness of DRM.

The programme continued by a roundtable panel debate where two different main topics were discussed. The first topic was about the contribution of communities and CSOs to inclusive and transparent Disaster Risk Management, where several challenges and opportunities were considered. Amongst others, the important role of gender and the Civil Service Institute (CSI) in DRM was highlighted in this debate. The second topic was about the cooperation between media and public authorities and the potential they have for inclusive and transparent DRM in Somaliland. After the panel discussions, the Programme team announced the Advisory Committee members and presented the Terms of Reference for the functioning of this committee.

The DANWADAAG consortium is very enthusiastic about the outcome of this event. Interesting topics have been discussed by all the partners involved which are very valuable for the activities that will be realized in the near future. Updates about those events will be mentioned on this page.