Estimates

A landslide devastated villages in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan on 2 May 2014. Over 6,300 people were displaced. Photo: IOM/Matt Graydon, 2014approaches with regard to shared resources,such as within river basinsand along coastlines, to build resilienceand reduce disaster risk, includingepidemic and displacement risk.”Priority four highlights the need to:“Promote regular disaster preparedness,response and recovery exercises,including evacuation drills, trainingand the establishment of area-basedsupport systems, with a view to ensuringrapid and effective response todisasters and related displacement,including access to safe shelter, essentialfood and non-food relief supplies,as appropriate to local needs.” 3The framework does not, however, specificallycall on states to collect data ondisplacement. One solution to this mightbe to incorporate displacement-specificindicators into national disaster loss databases.Another cause for concern isthat it lacks measurable benchmarks forassessing progress towards implementation.Rather than including quantitativetargets, its seven global objectives aimto reduce risks and enhance capacities“substantially”. 4UNSC and other bodies working withdisplacement and disaster risk data at theglobal and regional level have an importantrole to play in developing standards,baselines and benchmarks for monitoringthe framework’s implementation. Asthe region worst affected by disastersand their impacts, Asia and the Pacificwill have a strong voice in policy dialogueand reporting at the global level. Regionalefforts are underway by member statesand experts from the UN Economic andSocial Commission for Asia and the Pacific(ESCAP)’s statistics committee. Anexpert group has been tasked with developingcommon basic standards and acompilation guide for the disaster statisticsneeded to monitor progress towardsachieving the objectives of both the Sendaiframework and the SDGs. 5In the long run, the main challenge forSendai’s signatories will lie in the robustimplementation of the framework’s provisions.If the Hyogo framework servesas an indicator, states will have to makemore effort to reduce disaster risks effectively.Thus far they have made progressin life-saving areas such as earlywarning, evacuations and response, butthey have struggled to address driversof risk such as poverty, rapid and unplannedurbanisation, weak governanceand environmental degradation. If theyfail to make significant progress in theseareas, the inclusion of displacement inthe Sendai framework will have been apyrrhic victory.6.3 Heading for Paris:Displacement in climate changenegotiationsIn the 2010 Cancun Adaptation Framework,parties to UNFCCC recognised theneed to address displacement as part ofcountries’ efforts to adapt to the negativeimpacts of climate change. 6 Given thatthe Cancun framework still stands todayand is not time-bound, some have questionedwhy the anticipated agreement atthe Paris conference of parties (COP21)should have to reaffirm this.The fact is, however, that the Parisagreement will set the agenda for the comingyears. The increased risk of displacementtriggered by weather-related hazardsunderscores the need for the issue to beput firmly on that agenda. The agreementwill also establish both implicit and explicitguidelines on financing and action to miti-6 | The post-2015 global policy agenda77