Chapter 9: Conclusions on Policy and Institutional Processes for Disaster Management in Sub-Saharan Africa

The global community is grappling with the rapid surge in multifaceted disasters – and so too is sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), considered among the world’s poorest regions. SSA’s predicament is further compounded by limited understanding, uptake and application of relevant global and regional policies and policy instruments. The current challenge is explained, in part, by the dearth of up-to-date literature – especially at a multi-country level, blending theory and empirical evidence, with policy institutions and processes. This book is therefore timely, as it provides a unique combination of disaster risk management (DRM) theory (Chapters 1 and 2); policy and institutional analyses, from regional level (Chapter 3), to country-specific cases (Chapters 4 and 5); and empirical evidence (Chapters 6–8), in SSA. The country-specific chapters are derived from Central Africa (Cameroon), East Africa (Kenya), West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), and Southern Africa (South Africa). Besides conceptualising disaster management, this nine-chapter book provides a synthesis of country-specific policy and policy instruments frameworks for DRM in SSA countries. It further explores the extent to which these policies resonate with the African Union’s (AU) strategy for disaster risk reduction (AU-DRR) and exposes institutional capacity and pitfalls for effective DRM in SSA.