Sendai “groundbreaking” on inclusion
SUVA, 28 October 2015 – The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction represents a ‘groundbreaking’ agreement that sets a new benchmark in efforts to strengthen inclusion.
The CEO of the Pacific Disability Forum, Mr. Setareki Macanawai, heralded the 15-year global blueprint to substantially reduce disaster losses and risk, for embracing the voices and the issues of persons living with disabilities.
“The Sendai Framework is groundbreaking, in fact it is something much more than we expected in terms of the outcomes and the inclusion of people living with disabilities,” Mr Macanawi told more than 200 senior representatives at the 2015 Pacific Regional Disaster Resilience Meeting.
“It (the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction) was a very useful forum that had full and effective participation of persons living with disabilities.”
Mr. Macanawi said there was now recognition that it is impossible to achieve the sustainable development agenda without incorporating the rights, wellbeing and perspectives of people living disabilities.
He quoted two parts of the Sendai Framework to illustrate his point: “(First) There has to be a broader and a more people-centred preventive approach to disaster risk. Disaster risk reduction practices need to be multi-hazard and multi-sectoral, inclusive and accessible in order to be efficient and effective.
“(Second) Persons with disabilities and their organisations are critical in the assessment of disaster risk and in designing and implementing plans tailored to specific requirements.”
The CEO said he detected ‘a shift in mindset’ that now views people living with disabilities as having significant capacity who want to play a big role in efforts to strengthen resilience rather than ‘passive recipients’ of aid.
The Pacific Disability Forum is a partnership of 58 partners from 19 countries and territories that builds the capacity of organisations working on disability issues.
The International Day for Disaster Reduction 2013 focused on the one billion people around the world who live with some form of disability. It highlighted how persons living with disabilities – representing one-fifth of the world's population – have unique contributions, often overlooked, to help reduce the risk of disasters and build resilient societies and communities.
In conjunction with the International Day, UNISDR conducted a global survey of persons living with disabilities on how they cope with disasters. It illustrated why they die, or are injured, in disproportionate numbers in disasters.
People living with disabilities across the world said they were rarely consulted about their needs. For instance, only 20% could evacuate immediately without difficulty in the event of a sudden disaster event, the remainder could only do so with a degree of difficulty and 6% would not be able to do so at all.