Progress and challenges in global disaster reduction

Abstract

United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR For 30 to 40 years, scientists have been trying to demonstrate to decision makers in government and to everyday people that there are many actions they can take to reduce the impact of disasters. But in many parts of the world there is still a culture of fear around disasters. Nature is not responsible for disasters—people are. Part of the reason for why disasters occur lies in the way human beings build societies and expand settlements. A thousand years ago, people living in rural communities relied on river flooding to fertilize their land. But today when flooding happens it very quickly becomes a disaster because on those traditional agricultural lands we have built new cities and ports, which in some ways are necessary for progress but also pose risks. We are living in a consumer-driven period of human his-tory where the available resources on the planet are out of balance with our aspirations for perpetual economic growth. We have an opportunity to shift that balance by recognizing that the planet's resources are not endless. But that requires a big mind-shift. We should all aspire to live well. But what can we do to also take a bit more responsibility? Take, for example, the enormous amounts of garbage we are creating from the packaging for our cell phones, our TVs, and other consumer goods. Where does it go? These are the things we need to be conscious of and take individual responsibility for. Similarly, the purpose of disaster risk reduction is to create a very different attitude to disasters and to risk. It is an attempt to empower people and get each individual to ask, " What can I do to protect myself and to minimize risk? " It is about cultivating an attitude of not accepting the inevitability of disasters. But it requires a big leap in the way we act. The work that you are doing, the studies and research that you are embarking on, is critical for helping to make that shift happen not just in theory but also in practice. At the end of the period of the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World in the mid-1990s, the scien-tific community was struggling to make themselves heard on the issue of disaster risk reduction. People working in this field realized that it was clearly not enough to produce scientific knowledge. It was also necessary to try to change behavior through advocacy, communication, and education. The United Nations created the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), which was formally established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1999. Next, the disaster risk reduction community began working towards a common framework for international action to give guidance to nations and communities on how to reduce disaster risk through a structure that empowers people. A conference on disaster reduction was planned for January 2005 in Kobe, Japan. Then, on 26 December 2004, the Indian Ocean Tsunami happened and changed the way we looked at disasters. There was an enormous loss of life. People in southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Somalia, and also in Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Norway—countries where hundreds of thousands of tourists and visitors came from who were also affected by the tsunami —were deeply affected. In some places, people turned against their governments. They felt that their governments were totally unprepared to handle such a crisis that affected so many people. Because this catastrophe happened just weeks before the Kobe event, it completely changed the nature of the confer-ence. The Kobe conference resulted in very strong support for the Hyogo Framework for Action. This framework is aimed at helping nations and communities to save lives, economic assets, and environmental assets. Countries agreed on three strategic goals: the full integration of disaster risk reduction into sustainable development policies and planning; the strengthening of institutions and capacities to build resilience; and the systematic incorporation of risk reduction approaches into the implementation of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery programs. The three strategic goals are further divided into the Hyogo Framework's five priorities for action: first, to ensure that risk reduction is a national and local priority supported by a strong institutional base, laws and policies, and a budget; second, to identify assets and monitor disaster risks, and strengthen early warning systems; and third, to turn knowl-edge into practical action. The fourth priority is the most challenging and forms the core of the framework: how to reduce underlying risk factors.