The impacts of climate change and the changing environmental order are beginning to be felt more and more on a global level. From the rising sea level, to heavy urban floods, hurricanes and typhoons, many countries around the world are loosing human and material wealth. From Asia to the Americas and Asia, the damages are appalling. More and more people are falling within the vulnerable group threshold and new challenges are discovered everyday. Companies have lost their entire businesses, families have lost their habitat and source of livelihood, and governments have lost the greatest of their human assets. With all these dilemma, the level of complacency around the world is flabbergasting. Many have accepted their lot and attributed disasters to "an act of god". Many feel there is nothing they can do against nature's wrath. The perception is wrong and misleading. Disasters do not only take our most valuable assets from us, but also compound our challenges and increase the problems we face in dealing with developmental issues and meeting the goals of the MDG (Millennium Development Goals). No single country can effectively deal with disasters and be content with it. Since the challenges of climate change and disasters are being felt on a global level, its going to take a global effort to design, frame and plan a way of mitigating , responding and recovering from disasters. This is what UNISDR decided to do, by acting as a platform to channel global efforts towards tackling growing threats.
In January (18th to 22nd) of 2005, the world converged in Hyogo, Japan, to reduce disaster risks. At the end of that conference, delegates from 168 countries met and birth the Framework for Action 2005-2015, with the aim of building the resiliency of nations and communities to disasters.
The Yokohama Strategy and its Plan of Action that was adopted in 1994 observed some areas to reduce disaster risk and identified some gaps in some five key areas:
(1) Governance: organizational, legal and policy frameworks;
(2) Risk identification, assessment, monitoring and early warning;
(3) Knowledge management and education;
(4) Reducing underlying risk factors;
(5) Preparedness for effective response and recovery.
The lessons and gaps from the Yokohama Strategy have helped to inform the Hyogo Framework for Action. Its going to take a wider effort of sensitization and advocacy to attract more countries and communities to join in this global effort. Disaster preparedness and response initiatives should begin from the local communities to the national and global. If the common man is not aware of the risks and threats surrounding them, the efforts of governments be it in urbanization or designing new building codes will have little or no impact because vulnerable groups and people with less information will keep settling in at-risk areas and fall within the cracks.
For more information on the Hyogo Framework for Action and to download and read the full pdf report , visit http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/1037
Also, below are a few informative videos on the work of UNISDR in reducing disaster risks.
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