SADC minister meet to discuss the role ICT can play in climate-related disasters.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) aims to leverage ICT to tackle the impacts of climate change and is exploring measures to combat increasing threats to the region’s cyber space. 

These issues will be central to the ongoing SADC Cluster Meeting of Senior Officials, held in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

The meeting sees ministers responsible for transport, ICT, information and meteorology from the 16-member bloc countries converge.

Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar and Zambia have endured deadly floods in recent days. Climate change-related disasters, which the SADC Model National Emergency Telecommunications Plan (NETP) aims to mitigate, are among several key issues on the agenda.

“In the region, we have had quite a number of severe disasters due to the changing environment due to the weather,” said Dr Beullah Chirume, the host country’s Permanent Secretary in the ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services.

“We are talking about how telecoms can actually help to mitigate that, to raise awareness, inform and advise. Zimbabwe is very excited that we have already domesticated the National Emergency Telecommunications Plan ahead of everybody else,” said Chirume.

She also raised the issue of rampant cyber crime.

This falls under the aegis of the SADC Harmonised Cybersecurity Framework.

"Following the SADC model on cyber, we have also domesticated. Soon, we will be revising that to ensure it aligns with current development in the cyber space,” Chirume added.

“As these technologies emerged, especially newer technologies, (they) were susceptible and open to various types of attacks. Because of that, we need to mitigate. This is one of the key areas of discussion.”

The cluster meeting is scheduled to receive reports on the SADC ICT programmes and projects including the NETP, Shared Satellite System, Regional Computer Incident Response Team, SAC Harmonised Cybersecurity Framework, Internet Exchange Points, Roaming Project and the Radio Frequency Spectrum Allocation Plan.