Togo, a country particularly vulnerable to floods and droughts, was devastated by heavy flooding in 2010.The floods affected over 82,000 people and led to extensive damages to property and livelihoods, with thousands rendered homeless and sheltered temporarily in camps and with friends and relatives. In response, GFDRR supported the government in conducting the country’s first Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA).

With the recent retirement of a number of experts that participated in the 2010 PDNA, and the resulting loss of their hard-earned knowledge and experience, the government requested a workshop to help bolster its capacity for post-disaster recovery. In response, the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction (GFDRR)’s Resilient Recovery team and the World Bank Group’s Africa Disaster Risk Management team, in collaboration with Togo’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, conducted a national workshop in Lomé in September 2016. The 59 participants came from the Togolese sector ministries and institutions typically affected by natural disasters, as well as country office staff from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), European Union, and World Bank. Non-government participants included representatives from the Togolese Red Cross, the University of Lomé, and several NGOs. The Minister of Social Action opened the event, which was also attended by the Ministers of Environment and Forestry. 

Nelson Akibode, national focal point of the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, felt that, “The training succeeded in providing the participants with the necessary tools to evaluate damage, losses, and reconstruction needs in the event of a disaster.”

The workshop covered the PDNA and the Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF), and drew on a mix of theoretical presentations and practical exercises. Some of the practical exercises used simulations to train participants in calculating damage and losses incurred by the disaster, and in defining post-disaster needs. Participants were told about the geographic, economic, political, and social contexts of a fictitious country, Someland, both before and after a major disaster. Their mission was to determine the priority sectors affected and to calculate the damage, losses, and needs of each sector. To cap off the exercise, workshop attendees participated in a mock plenary session, in which sector ministers defended their sector’s budget needs.

To complement this simulated on-the-ground experience, the workshop’s presentations covered key aspects of disaster-recovery theory, from the institutional setting to the financial and legal frameworks for recovery planning.

Conversation was lively, and participants were highly engaged, sharing their experiences and requesting more detail on a range of topics. Lieutenant Sam Kozon, a firefighter, asked the moderators to explain the relationship between post-disaster humanitarian relief and the PDNA, while others asked about the macro, micro, and human development impacts of a disaster. At the end of the workshop, participants had the opportunity to recommend actions specific to Togo’s context and needs. These included:

• creating a national agency for disaster risk management, with regional branches bringing in the local context;
• increasing the number of national experts for post-disaster recovery;
• creating a special fund for disaster risk management; and
• regularly updating government baseline data at the regional and municipal levels.

In the weeks since the training, participants have continued to engage with the issues, following up with  questions and requests for additional training sessions. In fact, interest was so high that GFDRR and the Togolese government have arranged a follow-up training in the coming weeks for experts outside of the country’s capital. The training will be led by selected government experts that participated in the Lomé workshop, opening the door for a government-led, sustainable model for enhancing local capacity.