Posts Tagged ‘UN Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction’

Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

Saturday, March 14th, 2015
UN Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

UN Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction opens today in Sendai, Japan at which UN Member States will confirm a successor agreement to the Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) that will be known, appropriately, as the Sendai Framework. The Hyogo Framework for Action (Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters) was an ambitious ten-year program to significantly reduce disaster risks worldwide. The Hyogo Framework was adopted by UN Member States at the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in January 2005 in Hyogo, Japan. The Second World Conference was motivated by a sense of urgency to address disaster risks, as it was convened following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

The Hyogo Framework was developed around five priorities:

  1. Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation.
  2. Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.
  3. Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels.
  4. Reduce the underlying risk factors.
  5. Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels (regional, national, local).

Each of the priorities is assessed by individual indicators of progress. Every two years, countries report through a tool known as the HFA Monitor and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), the UN body that serves as secretariat for this work, prepares an in-depth analysis of the findings. This periodic reporting allows countries and other stakeholders to reflect on progress made and assess the remaining challenges. It has also proved helpful for the sharing of best practices in disaster risk reduction. In the two years leading up to this week’s conference in Sendai, UNISDR, at the request of the UN General Assembly, coordinated all of the preparation work and consulted with all of the relevant stakeholders to begin the basis for negotiations.

The outcome of this week’s conference, the Sendai Framework, is expected to serve as the “next generation” guidance for global disaster risk reduction, building on the progress made under the HFA. Specifically, the Sendai Framework is expected to address issues such as emerging risks (such as food security, cyber security and environmental hazards, for example) and the challenges of adapting to climate change. This is an important week for Prisere LLC as we have worked for UNISDR on the reporting and analytical work on the road to Sendai. The conference is also important to small businesses, as the Sendai Framework is expected to call for increased engagement of the private sector in disaster risk reduction.