MANILA, Philippines – With the world “lagging behind” meeting the targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (Sendai Framework), development aspirations of Asia-Pacific countries may be derailed, a United Nations (UN) official said on Tuesday, October 15.
“As we learned from last year’s midterm review of the Sendai Framework, disaster risks are increasing all across the world,” said UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction head Kamal Kishore during the welcome ceremony on Tuesday for the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR).
“At the same time we are lagging behind in meeting the targets of the Sendai Framework. Disasters are now affecting record numbers of people, affecting their lives and livelihood,” said Kishore.
“Left unchecked these disaster risks threaten to derail the development aspirations of the Asia-Pacific region and push back progress that has taken decades to achieve.
Through the Sendai Framework, UN member states agreed to work on reducing the loss of lives caused by disasters, prevent economic loss and damage to infrastructure and disruption of basic services.
Countries also agreed to implement national and local DRR strategies and make accessible early warning systems.
Where are we now?
Early 2023, the UN finished a midterm review on status of the Sendai implementation. The report said that “countries are not on track” to realize the “substantial reduction in disaster losses by 2030.” Economic losses due to disasters remain high at a whopping average of $330 billion per year.
Meanwhile, the report noted that since 2015 more countries have come up with their own DRR strategies aligned with the Sendai Framework, increasing from 15 to 63 countries.
In the pursuit of preventing disaster impacts, Kishore said the region has set an example in mitigating disaster risks with the rest of the world.
“What we discuss here is of relevance not only to the people of Asia-Pacific but to the entire world,” said Kishore.
“That is, because while Asia Pacific is the most disaster-prone region in the world, it is also the region that has pioneered many of the concepts of disaster risk management that has been followed…in all the other parts of the world.”
With Kishore onstage for the welcome ceremony is President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Environment Secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, and Australian Ambassador to Manila HK Yu.
A vulnerable region
The Asia-Pacific region is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
Seventy percent of the global population susceptible to rising sea levels are in the region, according to a report from the UN Development Program.
The climate crisis cold also disrupt livelihoods of many living in the Asia-Pacific, as one-third of the region’s population depend on “natural resource-based sectors” like agriculture and fisheries.
The existential threat that the climate crisis poses on the region is not lost on its member countries, and has inspired them to challenge polluters at court, and become vocal of climate impacts in the international arena.
The Philippines, for example, has taken responsibility of hosting the Loss and Damage Fund board.
South Pacific nation Vanuatu early this year initiated the resolution to request for the International Court of Justice’s opinion on countries’ obligation to take climate change action. (READ: Philippines joins biggest case vs climate change, tells court ‘polluters must pay’)
In his speech, Marcos emphasized the collective experience of disasters across Asia-Pacific nations, the need to “redouble” efforts to implement Sendai.
“The Sendai Framework… gave the international community profound guidance in our disaster risk reduction efforts,” Marcos said on Tuesday. “Our path now is to redouble and to synergize our efforts to accelerate its implementation.”
The APMCDRR is a week-long event that gathers representatives from the region’s governments, civil society, scientific community, and the private sector, to discuss the implementation of the Sendai Framework. – Rappler.com