The Regional Emergency Office for Southern Africa (REOSA) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) provides coordination, technical and operational support in food security and agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRR/M) to governments, regional partners and to FAO Country Offices within the southern Africa region.

FAO REOSA strives to assist governments, regional partners, inter-governmental organizations and other partners to prepare for, reduce the risk of, and deliver effective responses to food and agricultural threats and emergencies.  Our approach is to link short-term emergency assistance with longer term sustainable development that reduces vulnerability to crisis and improves rural livelihoods. We aim to achieve effective coordination, improved linkages between country and regional bodies, and to facilitate cross-country sharing of lessons learned and best practices across the region.

Established in 2002 at the height of the regional food security crisis, FAO REOSA supports six Country Emergency Coordination and Rehabilitation Units (ECRU) in Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.  We also provide support, as needed, to FAO Country Representation Offices in seven other countries, including Angola, Namibia, Botswana, DRC, South Africa, Comoros, and Seychelles

FAO REOSA’s work comprises three main areas:

We work in partnership with and provide technical programmatic support as appropriate, to government departments, civil society, and regional bodies, including the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and NEPAD, in, agriculture, food and nutrition security and disaster risk reduction and management in southern Africa. We work with UN agencies on regional UN joint programming initiatives through among others, the UNDG Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG), the UN Regional AIDS Team for Southern Africa (RATESA), and United Nations Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Support Committee (RIASCO).

Capacity Building
We provide strategic guidance, and technical and operational training support to regional and national partners, as well as other FAO Country offices implementing FAO’s DRR/M and emergency and rehabilitation projects.  This support is the areas of food security and agriculture DRR/M, Conservation Agriculture (CA), food security and agriculture assessments and analysis, good agriculture practices, monitoring and evaluation, mainstreaming of gender and HIV/AIDS, and operation management.

Information, Coordination and Advocacy
REOSA aims to generate, document, and widely share lessons learned and best practices around methods, tools, techniques, and programmatic responses. We keep regional partners and stakeholders informed on the prevailing food security and agriculture situation and emerging issues and threats, including the implications of HIV and AIDS.  We strive to create and strengthen synergies for multi-agency and stakeholder joint activities dealing with region wide and inter-sectoral problems that have a bearing on food security and disaster risk reduction.  We support the development of programs integrating DRR/M and climate adaptation and advocate for Food Security DRR/M best practices scaled-up and incorporated into longer term development programmes and policies.

Links
FAO Emergencies