Inclusion, coordination in focus as Sendai looms

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Asia and Pacific
Participants in the Tbilisi workshop. (Photo: UNISDR)
Participants in the Tbilisi workshop. (Photo: UNISDR)

TBILISI, 3 March 2015 – More inclusion and better coordination are needed to boost future efforts to strengthen resilience, according to disaster risk experts from Asia and Europe.

The representatives of eight National Platforms and coordination mechanisms for disaster risk reduction delivered their verdict as global policymakers prepare to convene for the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in Sendai, Japan, in less than two weeks’ time.

The disaster risk coordinators from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and Turkey released their “Tbilisi Statement”, comprising eight recommendations for the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction to build on past progress.

The Director of Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre Ms. Anoja Seneviratne, said the lessons from the 2005-2015 Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) are clear.

“Experience from implementing and monitoring the HFA shows the need for a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral approach for disaster risk management coupled with strong national coordination backed by government leadership,” Ms. Seneviratne said.

“Risk sensitive development and ‘Build Back Better’ as main considerations in the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, this learning needs to be taken forward with greater momentum,” she added.

The Director of Armenia’s National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Movses Poghosyan, agreed that the HFA was an excellent springboard for future disaster resilience efforts.

“The HFA provides so much learning about the burning issues pertinent for disaster risk reduction, issues such as land use planning, urban development, implications of climate change as well as many others,” Mr. Poghosyan said.

“And to address these issues, the National Platforms for DRR are the best mechanism available within the post-2015 framework.”

The meeting host, Mr. Zviad Katsashvili, Director, Emergency Management Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, was delighted that the discussion had provided several important pointers for the upcoming World Conference, which begins on 14 March.

The three-day forum in the Georgian capital Tbilisi was co-organized by the Emergency Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

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