National Preparedness and Response Plan for the 2015 El Nino Effects in Rwanda

The National Preparedness and Response Plan for the 2015 El Nino Effects in Rwanda is a national sectoral plan of Rwanda. It primarily addresses the Rwanda’s planned response to El Nino situation likely to affect the country. The document’s overall objective is to support the timely, efficient, consistent and coordinated response to anticipate potential impacts, thus effectively reducing the impacts on human population, livelihoods, infrastructure and the environment.
The Plan aims to provide food assistance to the affected populations in the cases of emergency. Specifically, it provides that the competent authorities identify potential food suppliers by October 15, 2015; provide food (beans, maize, oil, water) for 20,000 people to assist the affected population; and develop a plan to mitigate food insecurity that may touch the areas at risk through awareness and small structural community works.
Increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters is the main objective of the Plan. To this end, the document provides for the following measures: improving the management and coordination of preparedness, response and recovery arrangements in case of heavy incidents resulting from El-Nino; improving the provision of warning information sharing to ensure effective mitigation and response; ensuring timely resources mobilization for response; reducing the risk of secondary hazards; ascertaining the sector based level of impact of El Nino; identifying and defining roles and responsibilities of all partners and stakeholders involved in emergency and disaster response; providing the public with accurate and updated information on the hazard of El Nino; retrofitting house/buildings and cleaning water channels; getting the country ready to manage the El Nino effects; ensuring the safety of the population at risk by identifying all households still remaining in floods and landslides prone areas, and identifying and mapping evacuation sites in case of confirmed alerts/warning/disaster; and assisting affected population effectively to recover from the disaster impact.
The Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs holds the responsibility to coordinate all activities related to the preparedness and response to the disaster that may be triggered by the El Nino 2015. According to the Plan, the Ministry should work closely with the Rwanda Defence Forces, the Rwanda National Police, the Rwanda Red Cross, and the Ministries of agriculture, infrastructure, health and natural resources. The mentioned institutions will carry out the mitigation measures to minimize the damages and losses from El Nino.