ONGOING RESPONSE SUMMARY The SADC Secretariat, in collaboration with UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), convened a consultative meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa on 25 to 26 February 2016 on preparedness and response to the drought situation in the region, affecting Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The meeting made recommendations for the required response actions at the national and regional level in the short and medium term, which were presented to the Council of Ministers at their meeting held in March 2016. Out of these recommendations, Council of Ministers approved the declaration of a regional drought disaster and issuance of a regional appeal for assistance. Council also approved the establishment of a SADC El Niño Logistics and Coordination Team at the SADC Secretariat to coordinate a regional response in close collaboration with Member States. The SADC El Niño Logistics and Coordination Team was established in April 2016 at the Secretariat with the mandate to effectively and efficiently coordinate responses to the effects of the 2015/16 El Niño phenomenon on the region. Specifically, the Team is expected to: • Analyse and communicate the regional extent and magnitude of the impacts of El Niño and therefore the financial and logistical needs and requirements for an effective response. Source: WFP, Photo Credits: Claudia Altorio 36 • Coordinate the systems and institutional requirements for an effective importation and distribution programme of food and non-food commodities in the SADC Region to mitigate the impacts of the El Niño event of 2016. • Collate inputs from Member States and develop a regional El Niño Response Appeal and assist in identifying resource needs for the response. • Perform monitoring and evaluation of the response to allow for effective decision making during and after the response. and • Based on lessons learnt during the response, make recommendations for future disasters prevention, preparedness and response. This regional appeal document is the first main output of the Team’s work. Thereafter, the Team will support the other activities including resource mobilization, transport logistics and monitoring and evaluation of the response. Meanwhile, ongoing responses in Member States have included the scaling up of social safety net programmes and reallocation of national resources to attend to the needs of the affected populations. Vulnerability assessments were conducted in almost all countries between April and May 2016, which have informed both national and regional response plans, including this regional disaster appeal.