Tomorrow’s Nairobi City Research Lead Dr. Joanes Atela has written for one of Kenya’s leading newspapers, The Standard, about how the reactive response to COVID-19 has emphasised the need for the country to move from emergency response to integrated risk preparedness.

In the article, Dr. Atela said: “From the onset, the Covid-19 experience has exposed the emergency nature of disaster management in Kenya. The response to the pandemic has been largely reactive based on emergency directives from the National Covid-19 Emergency Committee and County Governments.

“The impacts of Covid-19 are severe at the community level for the poor who are already facing multiple and interconnected risks, including poverty, food insecurity, poor sanitation, social inequalities, gender discrimination and policy exclusion.

“This reinforces existing economic and social inequalities. Moving forward, Kenya’s disaster management systems should be strengthened towards risk preparedness. Disaster management policies at national and county levels need to be more people-centred and adaptive to emerging threats such as Covid-19. To support people-centred preparedness, locally grounded co-produced data/evidence is required for adaptive and pro-poor planning.”

Click here to read the full article in the Standard

Click here to find out more about Tomorrow’s Nairobi’s research