STATEMENT BY THE RT HON. PRIME MINISTER,

 

DR B.SIBUSISO DLAMINI

AT THE DONORS’ CONFERENCE ON DROUGHT REPSONSE

 

AT THE ROYAL SWAZI SUN CONVENTION CENTRE

 

WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH 2016

 

Chiefs

Honourable Deputy Prime Minister

Honourable Ministers

Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corps, other donors and

development partners

Regional Administrators

Honourable Members of both Houses of Parliament

Captains of Industry

Representatives of Non-Government Organisations

Representatives of the Media

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Firstly, may I thank all participants, and especially the representatives of the donor community, for joining us today at this Donors’ Conference, being held to address the resource challenge of the most serious drought situation faced by the Swazi Nation in nearly 40 years.

On 18 February 2018 His Majesty’s Government declared the current drought a national emergency and, at the same time, launched the National Emergency Response, Mitigation and Adaptation Plan. The Plan was developed by a joint Government team working with the recently established National Disaster Management Agency, and a broad spectrum of stakeholders.  

It is a nationwide plan with the mitigation component focused on reducing the adverse impact of the drought, and an adaptation component designed to reduce our future vulnerability to such devastating challenges of nature.

The recent rainfall has been a blessing and we are very grateful for it. In the limited extent to which it can be individually harvested, that water is performing a life-saving function. But no amount of rain can repair the damage caused by an entire growing season gone, and the intended crops lost forever. Indeed, national maize production is down 64% on last year which itself was down 31% on the previous year. And for exactly the same reason : drought.

No fewer than 300,000 Swazis are without food because of a season lost, and also, to a very large extent, without water. Our people have lost 64,000 cattle in the past few months. A large proportion of our population depends on agriculture for subsistence, and in commercial agriculture the sector accounts for 10% of GDP and 50% of exports.

Furthermore, while those rains will go some way to resolving the critical water supply situation, facing urban areas such as Mbabane, Manzini and Ngwenya, it is far from certain that the precipitation of the next few weeks will carry those populations through the dry winter months.

Our responsibility in Government is to make our very best effort to ensure that, above all, not one life is lost to this drought.   That said, neither can we accept a situation in which people suffer hunger and thirst to the extent of risking the incidence of ill-health and, in the case of children, stunted growth through malnutrition.

When one lives in the main residential, industrial and commercial corridor of the country it is not easy to capture the image of people experiencing severe hunger and thirst. But that situation is there, in the rural areas, and with all the dreadful reality of day-by-day human suffering. Our National Emergency Response, Mitigation and Adaptation Plan can eliminate that suffering, and will do so effectively if we, as a Government, can mobilise the necessary resources.

Adaptation is also a critically important component of the Plan because future droughts are generally accepted as inevitable. Beyond the issue of El Niṅo – which is a broadly predictable weather pattern - lies the lurking spectre of climate change. Is what we have seen exclusively El Niṅo, or is there added the potentially destructive influence of climate change? We do not know, but what we do know is that, until carbon emissions are reduced to target figures, there will continue to be extreme weather behaviour in the world.

Swaziland is a country which is currently entering a period of fiscal challenge within the public sector, accompanied by the need for significantly faster economic growth. We are achieving commendable progress in the improvement of our business environment to attract more investment, from large to small scale enterprise. But the impact will not be immediate. A large proportion of the fiscal challenge is attributable to the projected decline in revenue from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) over the next two or three years. In the meantime, we have development and recurrent expenditure needs which cannot be ignored, and require the resources available in the National Budget.

The additional resource need for implementation of the National Emergency Response, Mitigation and Adaptation Plan is around E1.5 billion on present estimates, and cannot be met domestically without a very undesirable negative impact on essential Government expenditure.

Government has spent around E50 million on drought interventions in recent weeks, and has requested Parliamentary approval for a further E105 million in our supplementary budget for 2015/16, and an additional E200 million in the main Budget for 2016/17 financial year. Faced with the shortfall of E1.5 billion for the five year implementation of the Plan, we are asking donors and other development partners to kindly assist us with that level of resources.

It is very important for a donor, or other development partner, to have the confidence that the domestic capacity of the recipient country is in place to put to best use all donated resources, and achieve the outputs and outcomes of the Plan. And that must be done to the highest standards of honesty, custody and control of resources, and independently validated accountability. We, as Government, will give all those assurances, and we are confident that the staffing and other public sector resources, together with systems and controls, are in place to ensure that delivery of the Plan distinguishes itself in terms of integrity, efficiency and effectiveness.

We have a busy day ahead. There will, shortly, be a full presentation of the National Emergency Response, Mitigation and Adaptation Plan in which the shocking details of the impact, to date and in the coming months, are presented to you comprehensively. On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I thank all present for their participation, and repeat our humble request for the requisite resource support from the donor community to enable Swaziland to implement her National Emergency Response, Mitigation and Adaptation Plan.

Thank you.