Supplementary Act A/SA.8/01/07 Adopting the ECOWAS Policy on Disaster Reduction

Jurisdiction
African Regional Bodies · Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Citation
Act 1-8 of 2007
Date
19 January 2007
Language
English
Type
Legislation
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Economic Community of West African States

Supplementary Act A/SA.8/01/07 Adopting the ECOWAS Policy on Disaster Reduction

Act 1-8 of 2007

The High Contracting Parties,MINDFUL of Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the ECOWAS Treaty as amended establishing the Authority of Heads of State and Government and defining its composition and funstions;MINDFUL of Article 29 of the said Treaty relating to the environment, which commits member States to cooperate in the event of natural disasters, adopt policies, strategies and programmes at national and regional levels and establish appropriate institutions to protect and enhance the environment;MINDFUL of Article 3, paragraphs (f) and (j) of the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, which set for ECOWAS the objective, among others, of creating implementing institutions for appropriate policies capable of facilitating the coordination of humanitarian and rescue missions as well as adopting environmental protection and rehabilitation measures;RECALLING the achievements of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990 - 2000);RECALLING further the Yokohama International Strategy for Disaster reduction (ISDR) launched in 2000;RECALLING also the "Hyogo Framework of Action 2005 - 2015", which defines the orientations and the five measures for expanding and deepening local and/or international actions for minimising disaster risks;TAKING ACCOUNT of the regional initiatives of the African Union in collaboration with the NEPAD Secretariat, which led to the formulation of an African strategy for disaster risk reduction (the African Strategy) with the support of the Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the African Development Bank;TAKING FURTHER ACCOUNT of the recommendations of the 10th African Ministerial Meeting on the environment, which led to the endorsement of the "African Strategy";BEARING IN MIND the recommendations of the African Union Summit held in 2004, which prescribed the formulation of a programme of action for the implementation of the 2005 - 2010 "African Strategy";CONSIDERING that the operational mandate granted ECOWAS by Article 29 afore-said, empowers it to integrate disaster risk reduction into its sub-regional disaster risk reduction programme and into its sub-regional programme for the reduction of poverty and the promotion of security and sustainable development;NOTING that in that regard, ECOWAS adopted disaster risk reduction as one of its operational themes and consequently took part in appraisal meetings and seminars on disaster risk reduction organised by the UN/ISDR;CONSIDERING that the fifty-first session of the Council of Ministers held in Accra in 2003 instituted a technical committee, which it charged with defining a mechanism for disaster management and formulating a policy for the reduction of such disasters;DETERMINED to provide the sub-region with a disaster reduction policy;UPON THE RECOMMENDATION of the fifty-seventh session of the Council of Ministers, held in Ouagadougou from 18 to 19 December 2006;AGREE AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

The ECOWAS Policy on Disaster Reduction, attached hereto, is hereby adopted.

Article 2

This Supplementary Act shall be published by the Commission in the Official Journal of the Community within thirty (30) days of its signature by the Chairman of the Authority. It shall also be published within the same time frame by each Member State in its National Gazette.

Article 3

1.This Supplementary Act shall enter into force upon its publication. Consequently, member signatory States and ECOWAS Institutions pledge to commence the implementation of its provisions on its entry into force.
2.This Supplementary Act shall be attached as an annex to the ECOWAS Treaty of which it is an integral part.

Article 4

This Supplementary Act shall be deposited with the Commission, which shall submit certified true copies thereof to all the Member States, and shall register the Supplementary Act with the African Union, the United Nations Organisation and with any organisation as may be determined by Council.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, WE, the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, have signed this Supplementary ActDone at Ouagadougou, this 19th day of January 2007In single original in the English, French and Portuguese languages, all three (3) texts being equally authentic.
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