90 DELIVERING RESULTSDisaster managementin the post-2015frameworkThe huge disparity in losses suffered by wealthy and poorcountries, affected by hazards of similar severity, has spurredthe international community to tackle disaster risk reductionBy Margareta Wahlström, Head, UN Officefor Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR);Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk ReductionThe Indian Ocean tsunami of26 December 2004 was a turningpoint in galvanising public opinionworldwide on the subject of disaster riskmanagement. How could more than200,000 people die with little or no warningin an age of mass communications? Andhow could so much vital infrastructure suchas houses, roads, schools and hospitals belying in harm’s way, waiting to be sweptaway by a raging sea?These were just some of the questionswhich troubled delegates attending the lastUN World Conference on Disaster RiskReduction, organised by UNISDR andthe Government of Japan and held in thefull glare of the media spotlight as morethan 500 journalists descended on Kobe,Hyõgo Prefecture, just three weeks afterthe tsunami had inflicted economic lossesestimated at $14 billion.So it was that in January 2005, a veryfocused gathering representing 168countries – including the UK – adoptedthe world’s first comprehensive agreementon disaster risk reduction, the ‘HyõgoFramework for Action (2005-2010):Building the Resilience of Nations andCommunities to Disasters’ (HFA), which isthe framework that has guided disaster riskmanagement to the point today where weare now seeking to improve on it at a newWorld Conference to be held in Japan nextMarch.At first glance, the achievements ofthe last 10 years may not look so great.Since the beginning of the 21st century,it is conservatively estimated that 1.3million people have died in disaster events,economic losses are in the order of $2.5trillion and, in an average year, over 200million lives are disrupted by disasters.Extreme hazards, extreme inequalitiesIt’s also clear from the experience of thelast decade that extreme hazards andevents are not synonymous with extremerisks. When similar numbers of peopleare affected by hazards of similar severity,wealthy and poor countries generallyexperience radically different losses andimpacts.One has only to contrast the death tollof 6,200 caused by Typhoon Haiyan inthe Philippines in 2013, with the loss of117 lives in the United States as a resultof Hurricane Sandy. Or the deaths of over200,000 people in the 2010 Port-au-Princeearthquake in Haiti, with the 525 who dieda few weeks later when Chile was hit by amore powerful earthquake.These broad comparisons underlinea fundamental truth about disaster riskmanagement, which is that countriesstruggling with risk governance can findit more difficult to address underlyingdrivers of risk, such as rapid urbanisation,climate change, poverty and environmentaldegradation. Often those who strugglemost are also experiencing conflict orpolitical instability.Nonetheless, over the last 10 yearsof reporting against implementation ofthe HFA there are many positive signsof change and clear indications that theculture of disaster risk reduction is startingto spread far and wide.Perhaps the most visible sign is that146 countries have been reporting ontheir efforts to implement the sweepingreforms contained in the HFA, and 121have enacted legislation to establish policyGLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014
DELIVERING RESULTS91© Reutersand legal frameworks for disaster riskreduction.It also clear that, in line with the HFApriorities, early warning systems, betterpreparedness and more effective disasterresponse have helped to bring down thedeath tolls from weather-related disasters.Few died in India last October whenCyclone Phailin made landfall in OdishaState, as some one million people hadbeen moved to safety to avoid a recurrenceof the 10,000 deaths that resulted from asimilar category-5 cyclone in 1999.UK contributionFrom the outset, the UK has played anactive role, for example, in promotingimplementation of the HFA andacceptance of its priorities, designed tosave lives and reduce economic losses.The UK Cabinet Office has participatedfully in all three HFA monitoring cyclesto date (2007-2009, 2009-2011 and 2011-2013). In 2009, the UK Cabinet Officehosted a meeting of European NationalPlatforms for Disaster Risk Reduction,which directly led to the establishmentof the European Forum for DisasterRisk Reduction (EFDRR), which is nowserved by UNISDR’s Regional Officein Brussels. That meeting also spurredengagement in the ground-breaking HFAmid-term review carried out by UNISDRto identify gaps and challenges in theimplementation process.Discussions at the EFDRR resultedin the UK becoming the first country tovoluntarily undergo an HFA Peer Review,Survivors of Typhoon Haiyan react as a USmilitary helicopter delivers aid to their isolatedvillage north of Tacloban, central Philippinesin an exercise that sought to overcomeany question marks over the value of aself-reporting mechanism and to introducea possible new element for monitoring andreporting, which could be considered forinclusion in the post-2015 successor tothe HFA.The review, carried out by representativesfrom UNISDR, the European Commission’sHumanitarian Aid and Civil Protectiondepartment and the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development,confirmed that the UK has achieved a highlevel of preparedness at both national andlocal level to respond to natural hazards andGLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014
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