Southern African institutions involved in disaster
management face two major new threats: the HIV/
AIDS pandemic (eroding organizational capacity and
increasing vulnerability of the population), and climate
change (higher risk of extreme events and disasters).
Analyzing the combined effects of these two threats on
six disaster-related institutions in Malawi, the authors
find evidence of a growing gap between demand for their
services and capacity to satisfy that demand. HIV/AIDS
leads to staff attrition, high vacancy rates, absenteeism, increased workload and other negative effects enhanced
by human resources policies and financial limitations.
Many necessary tasks cannot be carried out adequately
with constraints such as the 42 percent vacancy rate in
the Department of Poverty and Disaster Management
Affairs, or the reduction of rainfall stations operated by
the Meteorological Service from over 800 in 1988 to
just 135 in 2006. The authors highlight implications
of declining organizational capacity for climate change
adaptation, and formulate recommendations.