Ambassador Annett Günther welcomes participants, by highlighting the need to engage local communities and put the people at the centre of all our efforts.
She underlines the importance of hearing the specific regional perspective.
The Federal Foreign Office has been a proud supporter of Anticipatory Humanitarian Action and Forecast-based Financing for six years now and Annett Günther was involved from the start, also in her previous position as Director for Humanitarian Assistance the Foreign Office in Berlin.
Now six years later, Anticipatory Action is implemented in 27 countries in Africa. Ambassador Günther underlines that we need to remain focused on the most vulnerable, now more than ever. And that with the growing effects of climate change, the work of those active in Anticipatory Action to reduce the impacts of extreme events becomes ever more important. Climate change and disasters do not stop for Covid, says Ambassador Günther. The FFO is committed to further scaling up anticipatory action in the regions, expanding their support to cover Mozambique, Lesotho and Namibia. Annett Günther ends her statement by calling on all participants to “jointly scale up!”