REGIONAL STRATEGY SADC’s mandate of enabling regional integration and sustainable development is threatened by the current El Niño event in the region that threatens to erode the development gains already made. The success of the region is intertwined and a disaster affecting several MS will have a negative impact on the region as whole. With that, the appeal seeks to provide a framework for regional coherence across the response plans of the appealing Member States. Beyond addressing immediate life-saving needs, the strategy shapes the response to laying a foundation to address chronic needs in the region, through: • A multi-year plan: the appeal seeks to address the immediate humanitarian needs of the appealing Member States, but at the same time acknowledges that for a sustainable response, medium to long term developmental and resilience building initiatives need to be taken into consideration. SADC will link the MS plans with existing SADC programmes that have medium to long term developmental and resilience building activities and will also advocate for ICPs to use the MS response activities as a base for longer term developmental and resilience work. • A multi-sector response: while the availability and access of food aid is an obvious short term humanitarian gap following a drought or a failed agricultural season, the affected population will also need safe drinking water, sanitation services and healthcare, as well as support in addressing the adverse impact of lack of food and malnutrition. This requires sustainable and integrated collaboration across sectors of the humanitarian response to address key vulnerabilities and risks such as malnutrition, food insecurity, epidemics and displacements. The regional needs overview looks at a wide range of needs that is anchored on water availability for dependent of water access which include agriculture and hydropower generation. Water availability sets the stage for other sectors and programmes to address the needs in line with their respective mandates. The regional appeal, however, narrows down to the short and medium term humanitarian needs with dimensions for laying a foundation for early KEY POINTS Multi-year plan Multi-sector response Adapting the humanitarian response to build the Region’s resilience to crisis recovery and resilience building. The need for a multi-sector and coordinated response cannot be overemphasized. WASH interventions, for example, are essential aspects of nutrition and education responses; where safe water, sanitation and improved hygiene are absolutely necessary at health centres and schools supporting therapeutic feeding and school feeding programmes. • Adapting the humanitarian response to build the Region’s resilience to crisis: the plan acknowledges that the Member State responses are done in an environment that already has ongoing development and resilience programs, both micro and macro and seeks to leverage on such programs. By identifying the needs of the different sectors, Member States set a base where the short-term humanitarian needs are addressed and where medium and longer term resilience and development programs can take off. This will also ensure that opportunities for macro financing are considered. The fact that in some Member States the responses are in areas that already face chronic humanitarian needs means that the resilience of these communities needs to be strengthened to address the underlying causes of vulnerability and combat the compounding effects of the different hazards. SADC is also in the process of establishing long term mechanisms to enhance capacity for responding to disasters. These include the SADC Disaster Preparedness and Response Strategy, supported by a Disaster Response Fund, and the Financial Food Reserve Facility. Support is required from Member States and partners in the establishment and capitalisation of these disaster 33