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BANGKOK, 15 December 2017 – Governments and stakeholder partners from across Asia have renewed their commitment to a substantial increase in the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020.
The call for action on Target (e) of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan to reduce disaster losses, was made this week at the ISDR Asia Partnership (IAP), an inter-governmental and stakeholder forum that meets biannually.
Officials from 19 governments, three inter-governmental regional organization plus representatives from various stakeholders have been meeting in Bangkok this week to review progress on disaster risk reduction in the region and to support preparations for the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2018 (AMCDRR 2018), in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The IAP welcomed the focus of the AMCDRR 2018 on achieving target (e) under the overall conference theme ‘Preventing Disaster Risk: Protecting Sustainable Development’. It is one of seven Sendai Framework targets seeking to bring about a substantial reduction in disaster losses by 2030.
Countries represented were Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Ms. Sayanaa Lkhagvasuren, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia, Mr. U. Enkhtuvshin, who is responsible for disaster risk reduction, said hosting the AMCDRR 2018 was a huge opportunity for both Mongolia and Asia.
“We are determined to demonstrate our country’s regional leadership on key aspects of DRR, including the achievement of target (e) as well as urban resilience and the importance of public-private partnerships,” Ms. Lkhagvasuren said.
“We are also using the AMCDRR as a way of increasing awareness of disaster resilience in our own country, right down to the local level.”
UNISDR Chief of Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Ms. Loretta Hieber Girardet heralded the IAP’s focus on practical recommendations as an example of regional coordination in action that will translate into a positive impact on protecting lives and livelihoods.
“The overall trend of increasing disaster risk reinforces the need to scale up implementation of the Sendai Framework. The IAP and AMCDRR 2018 are regional mechanisms that galvanize action in disaster resilience at the local and national level,” Ms. Hieber Girardet said.
The AMCDRR 2018 is being co-organized by the Government of Mongolia and UNISDR. It will take place in Ulaanbaatar 16-19 July 2018.
The Prime Minister of Mongolia, Mr. U. Khurelsukh, is UNISDR’s newest DRR Champion for Asia, receiving the award at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, in Cancun, Mexico, in May this year. He continues to champion the DRR agenda particularly in terms of urban resilience and the role of youth as change agents.
The IAP was opened by Ms. Kirsi Madi, Director of UNISDR, and attracted 100 participants with representatives from governments, intergovernmental, UN and international organizations, business, academia, civil society, the Red Cross and Red Crescent and various other stakeholder groups and sectors.
Representatives provided technical and strategic input to the six main Technical Sessions for the AMCDRR 2018 that cover the four priorities of the Sendai Framework – understanding risk; governance; investing in DRR; and preparedness for response and build back better – as well as monitoring implementation of the Sendai Framework and coherence of the overall development agenda.
BONN, 8 December, 2017 - The Sendai Framework Monitoring Process took off this week as representatives from 85 UN Member States met in Bonn to share their knowledge and learn of the reporting requirements for the monitoring of the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan for reducing disaster losses adopted in March 2015.
The area of focus for the technical workshop was on the indicators for measuring targets seeking substantial reductions in (a) mortality (b) numbers of disaster affected, (c) economic losses, and (d) damage to critical infrastructure and on target (e) which sets a deadline of 2020 for a substantial increase in the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies.
Global targets (f) on enhancing international cooperation for the implementation of the framework and (g) on increasing availability and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments were also analysed.
The three-day meeting which finished today was organized by UNISDR and supported by the German government and attended by 170 representatives of countries, UN agencies, intergovernmental organizations and major stakeholder groups. It was particularly targeted at Sendai National Focal Points and representatives of national statistics offices. Support from the German Government enabled a number of representatives from least developed countries and small island developing States to attend.
Ms. Ingrid Jung, German Ambassador for the UN Liaison Office, Bonn, said: “In order to succeed with Sendai implementation we need to be able to measure the implementation progress at the international level. That is why Germany supports the Sendai Framework Monitoring Team here in Bonn in ensuring such measuring. We also need to ensure close linkage between the Sendai Monitoring Team and national risk reduction stakeholders to coordinate the monitoring process nationally.”
UNISDR’s support team for the Sendai Monitoring process is based in Bonn and is facilitating the process to ensure reporting on disaster losses for 2017 is completed by March 31, 2018 to inform reporting on implementation of the SDGs at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July which will focus on “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies.”
The Sendai Framework targets and indicators are also being used to measure progress on three critical SDGs: Goal 1, end poverty in all its forms everywhere; Goal 11, make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, and Goal 13, take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Mr. Ricardo Mena, head of UNISDR’s Sendai Framework Monitoring Branch, said: “We have general agreement now that the first full two year reporting cycle for 2015-2016 will be completed by October next year. This will provide us with an important benchmark against which to measure future progress and important content for the 2019 edition of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction which will be a key ingredient in the discussions at the 2019 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which will be held in Geneva.”
During the three-day technical workshop which launched the Sendai Framework Monitoring Process, participants learned about the Sendai Framework Monitor System including its data entry, analytical capabilities and levels of application at local, national, regional and global level. A number of countries also presented their progress to date in implementing the Sendai Framework.
Mr. Mohamed Zuhair, Minister of State, Ministry of Defence and National Security, Maldives, said: “This workshop was a great opportunity to learn all the technical details about the Sendai Framework Monitor. Disaster risk reduction is a high priority for my country and having shared indicators with Sendai Framework and the SDGs will make our task much easier by reducing the reporting burden.”
GENEVA, 5 December, 2017: A number of meetings and declarations in recent weeks have emphasized the importance of space technologies in supporting UN Member States to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan to reduce disaster losses by 2030.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction , Mr. Robert Glasser, commented: “Thanks to technological progress made in the past few years, geospatial information at the right scale and definition can be made available and provides critical elements to better understand exposure to disaster risk due to natural and human made hazards. It can also assist in ensuring a risk-sensitive approach to development planning to avoid the creation of new risk."
The Bonn Declaration, adopted on November 24 at a UN /Germany International Conference on International Cooperation towards Low Emission, Resilient Societies specifically calls on the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the UN OffIce for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) to work with the space community and relevant partners to develop robust solutions for disaster risk reduction.
The Bonn Declaration also calls on the World Meteorological Organization, UN agencies, the Group on Earth Observations, and other relevant organizations, to facilitate the identification of relevant satellite data and information to respond to requests from stakeholders, particularly from developing countries, in order to help with implementation of the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement on climate and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Declaration calls on UNOOSA and UNISDR to build on the pilots of the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), and the UN Platform for Space-based information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER).
CEOS coordinates civil space-borne observations of the Earth while enhancing international coordination and data exchange. UN SPIDER promotes international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. According to UN-SPIDER, “The pilot programmes involve the use of applications on earth observation, telecommunications and global navigation that support disaster risk reduction and recovery efforts, by providing accurate and timely information for decision-makers.”
One of the recommendations that came out of a recent meeting held by UNISDR on the creation of a global risk assessment framework underscored the use of geospatial, space-based and other emerging technologies to help unpack and understand the interconnected nature of risk.
The Mexico City Declaration, issued last week at the Fifth High Level Forum on UN Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) encourages the continued and productive integration of geospatial and statistical information as well as improvement of institutional coordination between national statistical offices and national geospatial and mapping agencies.
This declaration also calls on all involved to capitalize on ongoing digital transformation and emerging technologies, as well to innovate and make use of science and research.
Bonn, 29 November 2017 – The motto of the Republic of Marshall Islands - ‘Accomplishment through Joint Effort’ - has proved an inspiration for the country’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) communities to integrate their efforts to boost community resilience.
The north Pacific nation has reshaped its national governance for risk-informed development to ensure less duplication and achieve more sustainable impact at the local level.
Ms Jennifer DeBrum of the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ Joint National Action Plan Unit explained how stronger integration "makes sense to us conceptually" in a country with scarce resources and several challenges for the population of 54,000 people.
"We have been working to strengthen coordination and coherence of action on risk informed development and economic policy since 2010," Ms DeBrum said. "The key to success was working with all different groups – women, youth, mayors - to get them involved and ultimately to own the joint strategy.
"Going from theory to action was not easy for sure; it was a very complex process. In fact, it takes a lot of determination and tenacity to get it done."
Ms DeBrum was sharing the Marshall Islands’ experience at the Expert Meeting on Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into National Adaptation Planning, in Bonn, Germany, which convened 60 development policy specialists, DRR and CCA experts from around the world.
The meeting hailed the several examples of more integrated disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation action as a "win-win and no regrets" pathway towards community resilience.
Ms. Kathia Aguilar Martin, Technical Expert Director of Climate Change at Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy, told the forum how an initial focus on agriculture provided an "entry point" for more joint efforts that have now spread to other sectors.
The Head of UNISDR’s Bonn Office, Mr. David Stevens said: “The disaster risk and climate change communities have moved much closer in the past few years. This meeting and its outcome adds momentum to this consolidation of thinking and action on resilience building.”
Coherence is at the heart of on-going work at the international level of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through enhancing the linkages between implementation of the Sendai Framework, Paris Agreement and SDG’s. Paul Desanker, Manager in the Adaptation Programme, UNFCCC said “the National Adaptation Plans have come a long way and the explicit consideration of DRR strategies will facilitate coherence in achieving Sendai and UNFCCC adaptation goals and objectives.”
The outcomes of the Expert Meeting, organized by UNISDR, will now feed into a revision of technical guidelines that will to help countries to ensure that DRR is integrated into National Adaptation Plans.
The meeting was organized by UNISDR with the support of the German Government.
Geneva, 28 November 2017 - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser, today expressed his concern for the people and Government of Indonesia as the likelihood of a large volcanic eruption on Bali’s Mount Agung continues to become more imminent.
According to reports, Mount Agung has been emitting clouds of white and dark gray ash about 4,000 metres into the atmosphere while lava is welling up in its crater. Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Centre has warned of a possible eruption that could send rocks a distance of up to 8km, and volcanic gas a distance of 10km within three minutes.
Mr. Glasser said: “We have been informed that about 100,000 people in 22 villages within a 9.5 km red zone around the volcano were told to leave yesterday by the Indonesian authorities. We commend their swift action to raise the warning for the volcano to the top level four, while issuing warnings about the imminent risk of a larger eruption.
“This latest volcanic eruption underscores how early warning systems, evacuation planning, and swift responses from the relevant authorities work together to save lives and avoid catastrophic scenarios.
“The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) urges other countries vulnerable to volcanic activity to follow Indonesia and establish early warning systems and evacuation planning that protects at risk populations. This is an example of the type of risk management approach called for by member states in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction that needs to become a norm in countries facing day-to-day threats from natural hazards.”
LISBON, 24 November, 2017 - Do not be surprised to see tsunami warning signs if you walk along the beaches of Tel Aviv, they were set up earlier this month to coincide with the World Tsunami Awareness Day on November 5 by the city authorities to alert tourists and residents to the potential risk of a tsunami along the Mediterranean coastline.
The initiative implemented by the National Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness together with the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) was strongly supported by Tel Aviv's Mayor Mr. Ron Huldai.
“We had tsunamis in the past mostly triggered by earthquakes happening in Greece and Crete and the risk is still strong today. We do not know when the next one will happen and where, but we prefer to be prepared rather than being taken by surprise,” explained Mr. Amir Yahav, Director of the National Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness in Israel.
“Dozens of tsunami warning signs indicating escape routes in English, Hebrew, and Arabic have now been placed on beaches throughout Tel Aviv-Jaffa and the aim now is to install them all along Israel’s coasts, “ he said.
Israel counts more than 271 km of coastline and most of it is exposed to earthquake risk. Israel is located in the Mediterranean Sea where two tectonic plates, the Eurasian and the African ones can converge and trigger a major earthquake and a tsunami.
Still, tsunamis on Israeli shores are rare. The last one was recorded in 1956 and was the result of a large earthquake in Greek waters. Prior to that, the only tsunamis recorded were near Acre in the 19th century and Caesarea in the 12th century.
To complement the signs, the Israel Defense Forces has a new siren that will alert people to the threat should a tsunami happen.
"We now have two types of alerts: one for missiles and another one for tsunamis and this last one also includes for the first time a vocal message saying that a tsunami is in progress,” said Mr. Yahav who added that the initiative has been well received by the residents of Tel Aviv and the media.
To mark the World Tsunami Awareness Day, NEMA and the National Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness worked with hotels to better prepare them in case of earthquakes and tsunamis and will continue cooperating with them and other representatives of critical infrastructure to reinforce the current prevention procedures.
“We are preparing the country to respond to a 5-meter tsunami wave and I do not think we are excessive as if we had a tsunami today, losses will be enormous as thousands of people live by the coast and many critical assets are located along the shores. We certainly do not want to take the risk,” said Mr. Yahav who was speaking at an IOC UNESCO conference in Lisbon, Portugal discussing tsunami warning services for the North East Atlantic, Mediterranean and connecting seas region (NEAM) which currently relies on early warning service providers in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Turkey.
Israel is a subscriber to the NEAM system, which provides regular and essential data on the seismic and sea level activities in the region that will allow their national authorities to trigger or not a warning alert.
At the moment if an earthquake happens in Crete or Greece, Israel will have more than 20 minutes to evacuate its population.
“The Mediterranean Sea has a history of tsunamis, with 25 percent of all those ever recorded occurring close to Israel. Tsunamis occur off Israel’s coast every 100 years on average and we do get tsunami warnings after earthquakes roughly every three months,” said Mr. Yahav.
Photo details: *From left to right Betzalel Traiber, director of the National Emergency Management Authority, Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv, Amir Yahav, Director, Israel's National Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness and Chicko Edri, Chief of Police for the Tel Aviv region.Lisbon, 23 November 2017 - Portugal today joins France, Italy, Greece and Turkey as a National Tsunami Warning Provider in Europe covering the North-East Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea - which was the source of a devastating earthquake and tsunami which destroyed Lisbon in 1755.
The new system operational today in Lisbon, will strengthen early warnings for the 39 countries who are members of the North East Atlantic, Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAM) region under the coordination of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
It is hoped that this latest addition to the system will encourage more countries to the Tsunami Early Warning Service. Currently, only 16 countries do so.
Tsunamis are rare events that happen mostly in Asia and Americas but also in other parts of the world. Portugal was hit by a devastating earthquake measuring 8.5 to 9 on the Richter scale back in 1755, which killed more than 70,000 people and triggered tsunami waves up to 5-6 meters high in Lisbon.
Experts predict that another earthquake may occur again and could destroy part of Southwest Portugal and Spain, affecting hundreds of thousands of people who live on the increasingly urbanized shores of the Iberian Peninsula.
The new Portuguese service provider housed at the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere, (IPMA) can detect any earthquake striking the region and send the relevant information to the Portuguese authorities who will be able to alert people at risk within eight minutes, giving the authorities some time to order the evacuation of thousands of people to safe areas.
“The system provider relies on hundreds of sensors installed along the Portuguese shoreline that will be able to detect any ground shaking movement or water displacement,” said Fernando Carrilho, Director of the IPMA. “These sensors will send the information to the Portuguese authorities who will issue a tsunami message to communities and people at risk via text messages and sirens.”
The Portuguese coast is extensive with more than 943 km of coastlines in continental Portugal and some other 667 km of coasts in the archipelagos of the Azores and 250 km in Madeira. Not all are at earthquake risk but many are located along the Africa-Eurasia plate boundary, which makes them very vulnerable to seismic activities.
Portugal suffered two recent major earthquakes and tsunamis in February 1969 in continental Portugal and in January 1980 in the Azores killing some 80 people altogether.
“It is up to each country to subscribe to early warning provider. As an example, the new service provider operational today in Portugal will allow countries in the North East Atlantic region such as Mauritania, Morocco, Ireland, United Kingdom and France to benefit from the service if they subscribe to it."
The NEAM early warning system is one of the four main early warning systems existing in the world including those in the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean where the early warning system was introduced following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, which killed some 230,000 people.
It is estimated that more than 130 million people live around the Mediterranean and more than 230 million tourists visit the region every year; people who could be potentially at risk if any tsunami happens today.
The increase of availability and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information is one of the seven targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan for reducing disaster losses by 2030.
Since the year 2000, more than 11 million people have been affected by tsunamis and this has resulted in some 250,000 deaths with the highest death tolls in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Japan, India, and Thailand.
GENEVA, 23 November, 2017 – The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has welcomed a recommendation to create an expert working group that will focus on the creation of a global risk assessment framework.
At a two-day meeting this week at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, around 150 experts and professionals examined the establishment of such a framework with a view to supporting UN Member States implementing the global plan to reduce disaster losses, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), which covers natural and man-made hazards, and related environmental, technological and biological hazards.
Mr. Marc Gordon, Head of UNISDR’s Global Risk Analysis and Reporting Unit, said: “The immediate task for UNISDR will be to establish guidelines for the formation of the expert group. We will now develop terms of reference, invite expressions of interest, and call on the group to guide the continual development of a global risk assessment framework and its operational methods.”
“We have to represent the state of the art across a wider spectrum of hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and impacts, via a relevant and simple articulation of risk for application at relevant and appropriate scale across sectors and geographies”, he said.
Ms. Kirsi Madi, Director (UNISDR) said, “The focus now will be on strategic decision-making; specifically, on how future decisions can change existing patterns. This platform of experts will be a convergence of the challenges we face.”
She welcomed the discussions on the issues of gender, culture, and vulnerability that will inform the broader side of decision making. “This represents the ‘softer’ side of progress and will resonate with the theme of the 2018 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HPLF) which will focus on inclusion.”
Ms. Madi said, “As partners, we will also now be able create terms of reference and outcomes to share with senior UN leadership and Member States as a way forward.”
Mr. Ricardo Mena, Chief, Supporting and Monitoring Sendai Framework Implementation Branch (UNISDR), said the group would need to ensure coherence across the New Urban Agenda (2016), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2016), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“We need information that applies to multiple frameworks and targets, as well as to local and national risk reduction strategies. We have to look at what is happening with cities on risk assessment and risk reduction strategies, and look into collaborations with organizations working with cities”, he said.
Among the issues raised was the use of new technologies to help unpack and understand the interconnected nature of risk as well as create a more compelling communication narrative. The use of machine learning, big data - from the public and private sectors, science, research and academic institutions - to examine patterns, and cloud-based information to enhance accessibility, were also recommended.
Participants stressed the importance of a cultural context in discussions stating that engineering and science interpreted outside of such a context will miss risks. And, many agreed that after 10 years there were now new targets, new risks and interdependencies, new standards, new priorities, and possibly even a new role for UNISDR. It was therefore important to attract a broad range of stakeholders to support and take an active interest in the process which should lead to a greater understanding of disaster risk.
“The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction will have a different flavour that will open up a whole new way of doing things and position itself to be as game changer for the future,” said David S. Green, Program Manager, Disasters Earth Science Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
20 November, Geneva: Disaster risk reduction experts from around the world today began discussions on a new Global Risk Assessment Framework which can support UN Member States seeking to reduce disaster losses through implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
A key objective of the meeting is to identify what challenges must be overcome to create a global risk assessment framework that is inclusive of all hazards included in the scope of the Sendai Framework, the global plan to reduce disaster losses adopted in March 2015.
Today and tomorrow at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, over 150 experts and DRR professionals are debating key disaster risk management issues that straddle the ongoing efforts to arrest climate change and eradicate poverty.
The two areas of the meeting’s focus are on the demand for risk development at the global level, and in depth examination of the current state of disaster risk modelling and assessment.
Opening the meeting, Mr. Robert Glasser, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction said Member States had demanded a more comprehensive re-examination of the approach to global risk assessment “if potential global losses are to be more accurately assessed and global risk identified and estimated.”
He hoped that participants would be able to reach a better understanding of the needs of end-users “allowing us to identify gaps to be addressed, while identifying and exploring opportunities and challenges for convergence and collective endeavor”.
Mr. Glasser highlighted the need for the establishment of a standing Expert Group on Global Risk Assessment in support of the implementation of the Sendai Framework, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.
He also called for the secured commitment of partners to contribute to the first iteration of the Global Risk Assessment Framework to feature in the 2019 Global Assessment Report which will be produced in time for the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development and the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, both in May 2019.
Addressing the plenary, Mr. Adam Fysh, UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Africa Office, said that if data on global risk profiles was unified and standardized it would be a great improvement. “Information at country level is not good, and not always available in some languages. Data is inaccessible on the internet”, he said.
Mr. Chadi Abdullah, National Council for Scientific Research, Lebanon said: “Analysis of risk models cannot be used without adaptation. The lack of data and historical records are a big setback in developing countries. as is the lack of geospatial location of hazards. There are also big discrepancies in location of disaster risks on databases such as DesInventar and what is being projected elsewhere.”
Mr. Scott Hook, Pacific Islands Forum Sect. said: “We rely on expertise from national offices but capacity is a challenge and access to technology could be better. Access to forecasts is available in urban settlements but not in remote communities. Communicating key messages and updates is difficult.”
Mr. Rogelio Mondragón, INEGI, Mexico, said: “When the earthquake struck this year we used satellite and drone information to show damaged, collapsed, and standing buildings. We also used radar images to show the vertical movement of buildings. Geospatial information also generates indicators.”
Ms. Molly Jahn, University of Wisconsin-Madison said: “We now take an El Niño year and add an agricultural event. This approach to assess food system stability has led to an outlook scenario which is used to explore the future. The past is no longer an adequate guide. We are forecasting regional security by building a demand for a more robust approach to risk that will produce crucial stress test scenarios for hazards in the future. We are modelling systems that learn and generate decision-relevant science.”
Mr. Robert Muir-Wood, Risk Management Solutions, said: “Private sector catastrophe risk modelling is now a US$500 million per annum venture. Multi-hazards are incorporated in such models and licensed to insurers and reinsurers for them to imprint their own risks. These catastrophe models provide a large virtual history for insurers and reinsurers to prepare for risk worldwide.”
He said this type of risk modelling was necessary for disaster risk management, but “we must return every two to three years to see if there has been progress.
The opening discussion was moderated by Mr. Youba Sokona of the South Centre.
Geneva, 16 November, 2017 - PreventionWeb, the global knowledge sharing platform on disaster risk reduction (DRR), celebrates today its 10th anniversary. Launched in 2007 to support the work of DRR professionals, the site is managed by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
Staying true to its original concept, PreventionWeb remains first and foremost a collaborative platform, with content for and from the global DRR community. “PreventionWeb is my one stop shop for all the recent Disaster Risk Reduction publications”, wrote Thomas Seltsam from Austrian Red Cross, in a recent user consultation. Updated daily, the knowledge base features content from over 8,000 organizations working towards reducing disaster risk and building disaster resilience at the local, national and regional levels.
With an average of 90,000 monthly visits and close to 10,000 subscribers, materials published on PreventionWeb reach a wide community of DRR, humanitarian and development professionals. “PreventionWeb helps giving visibility to our own products: Got something new? Publish it on PreventionWeb first!” advises Lorenzo Guadagno from the International Organization for Migration.
On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, PreventionWeb is also launching some exciting new features.
Community members can now create and share content collections, highlighting important resources on a topic of interest. Users can select and tag relevant content such as news, publications, blog posts and bring them together on a collection page, which they can share with their network. The feature can be used to highlight emerging issues or to put together a package of resources in support of a training or event.
In an effort to promote DRR knowledge to new audiences and platforms, PreventionWeb offers free access to its knowledge base, through a public API. The technology allows organizations to use, publish and contextualise PreventionWeb’s content, alongside their own data. The data can be filtered by theme, hazard, region or country and repurposed in a database, website or mobile app.
Subscribe to PreventionWeb daily or weekly alerts to keep up to date on everything DRR. Contact preventionweb@un.org to explore collaboration opportunities and share your suggestions on the future of the platform.
Geneva, 16 November 2017 - Vulnerable communities in Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean are now benefiting from improved early warning systems against extreme weather as part of an international drive to boost resilience and climate change adaptation.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) over 80 percent of the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries and many small island developing States have only a basic early warning system. Weather observation networks are inadequate in many African countries.
A ministerial event at the United Nations climate change conference, COP23, yesterday was presented with the first results from the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative launched by the French government at the Paris Agreement negotiations in 2015.
CREWS aims to mobilize US$100 million by 2020 and is designed to achieve a key target of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan for reducing disaster losses, namely to “substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030.”
“In the Paris Agreement era, it is unacceptable that populations are not forewarned of an impending weather disaster. Let us now reinforce support for CREWS, launched in Paris at COP21, to enable the most vulnerable to benefit from effective early warning systems,” said Mr. Nicolas Hulot, the French Minister for Ecology.
CREWS action in Niger, Burkina Faso and the Pacific Region in support of operational hydro-meteorological forecasts and early warning services was highlighted with a special focus on early warnings for agriculture and civil protection.
“In 2012 Niger suffered the worst floods for 40 years, and this year over 100 people have died due to flooding. In the past, information and warnings was not accessible to the people living in exposed neighbourhoods. We have received funding from CREWS in order to improve early warnings so we can inform people of the risks. We are really happy about this support,” said Laouan Magagi, Minister for Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management in Niger.
In the Pacific, CREWS is strengthening hydro-meteorological and early warning services for islands including Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue and Tuvalu, Samoa, Tonga, Palau, Nauru, Marshall Islands and Tokelau.
The CREWS initiative builds on existing activities and enables countries to access additional resources from the Green Climate Fund and other sources. In Mali, a CREWS grant of US$ 2.7 million to strengthen hydro-meteorological services leveraged a US$ 23 million grant from the Green Climate Fund.
The CREWS Steering Committee last week approved a new project, “Weather and Climate Early Warning System for Papua New Guinea.” It aims to improve control and maintenance of the existing drought and flood monitoring network and provide tailored early warnings for the agriculture sector and disaster managers, with an investment totaling US$1,650,000.
The Steering Committee also approved a project for the Caribbean to review the effectiveness of the early warning systems for the recent hurricanes Irma and Maria. It will also address immediate forecasting requirements of affected countries through WMO global and regional centres.
The CREWS is a coalition of Australia, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Canada is aligning resources. It is being implemented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Bank, and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) with support of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
The new CREWS website is available here: http://www.crews-initiative.org/en
A video explaining the work of CREWS is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9fvBajiQF0
13 November 2017: Students from 26 countries came together last week for a pioneering event to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day in Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture in Japan.
The spirit of “Yui Maaru” which means mutual support and bonds between people in the Okinawan dialect, was at the heart of the High School Students Islands Summit for World Tsunami Awareness Day (WTAD), that gathered 255 high school students from 26 countries around the world on November 7-8.
During the Summit, students participated in workshops on: learning from past disasters; disaster preparedness; and post-disaster response. They engaged in tsunami memorial activities, traditional folklore and evacuation drills, while attending disaster lectures, visiting a local disaster reduction centre, and conducting a commemorative tree planting ceremony.
Ms. Mitsuho Nakai (16) from the tsunami-exposed region of Wakayama Prefecture, and returning Youth Ambassador from the 2016 Youth Summit said: "Last year we presented our action plan at the Summit in Kuroshio and our action plan was to introduce disaster prevention in our school. It was not until I participated in the Summit that I realised the importance of education for disaster prevention. Now I want to be an international volunteer and I would like to advocate to people all over the world about disaster prevention."
Opening the summit, Mayor of Ginowan, Mr. Atsushi Sakima described the ocean as “a treasure and indispensable asset” and “a platform for daily life and tourism”.
In welcome remarks, Governor of Okinawa, Mr. Takeshi Onaga, said, “Ichariba Choode”, an Okinawan phrase which means, “Once we have met, we are friends like brothers and sisters”.
Students came from Chile, China, Union of Comoros, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, United States, and Vanuatu.
A Japanese student, Mr. Yutaro Shimizu said, “We came here to reconfirm our commitment to create a stronger and more resilient community. While we come from different parts of the world, we share a passion to create a better world”.
Guided by the Kuroshio Declaration made at the first high school summit in 2016 held in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, participants were reminded that, “There is no time to be shy” as they set out to realize the guiding principles of the Declaration, “We will learn; We will take actions; We will create.”
His Excellency, Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe, via a video message, encouraged the students to become bridges between nations, by saying, “Bankoku Shinryo”, a phrase which signifies Okinawa.
Reducing disaster risk requires an all-of-society engagement which includes children and youth who are recognized change agents in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan to reduce disaster losses. “It is important that training begins with young people as they will create the future,” said Mr. Toshihiro Nikai, Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.
State Minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, Mr. Tetsuma Esaki, along with State Minister for Disaster Management, Mr. Hachiro Okonogi, both shared hopes that students would build friendships and return to their communities as tsunami awareness leaders.
The Summit issued a consolidated report -- the “Ambassador’s Note” -- which will be used by participating students for their DRR activities in their schools and communities, and handed over to the next Summit.
The Summit was organized by Okinawa Prefecture and Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education with support from the National Resilience Promotion Headquarters, Cabinet Office; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Japan Meteorological Agency; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UNISDR Office in Japan. This summit was in observation of the second edition of World Tsunami Awareness Day which is officially designated by the UN as 5 November.
SUVA, 6 November 2017 – Thirty youth ambassadors from five Pacific countries will tomorrow share their ideas on building tsunami resilience with young people from around the world.
The Pacific youngsters will join hundreds of students from Japan and 20 other countries for the High School Students Islands Summit, in Okinawa, to mark the 2017 World Tsunami Awareness Day.
Sixteen-year-old Piulani Tumua (pictured 2nd right), one of the Pacific youth ambassadors, is from Fetuvalu Secondary School, Tuvalu, a tiny atoll of 26 square kilometres with a total population of 11,000.
“I am so pleased to be going to Okinawa to share ideas on tsunami preparedness with students from so many countries. No part of our country is more than 3 metres above sea level. We need to act quickly to change attitudes amongst the whole community as tsunamis do not discriminate when they come ashore,” she said.
Piulani and her five fellow Fetuvalu School students have already drawn up plans to take the lead in building tsunami resilience and look forward to being armed with even more ideas on their return from Japan.
“We are looking to establish tsunami awareness clubs at our school and then at other schools. We also intend to reach out to former students as well as parents,” she said.
The Principal of Fetuvalu Secondary School, Mr. Penehuro Hauma (pictured 2nd left) said: “In Tuvalu we treat the risk of tsunami too lightly. It is great to see the students have this opportunity to travel to Japan and learn more about tsunamis. They are the ones who can change their own mindsets quicker as well as those of older people in the community.”
The students of King George V and Elaine Bernacchi School in Kirabati will make a presentation in Okinawa entitled: ‘Is there a chance against a tsunami on a flat island?’ They will then share their ideas of tsunami resilience before inviting input from students from other countries.
The students of Ratu Kadavulevu School, in Fiji, have already conducted tsunami exposure assessments on nearby communities such as Lodoni, which sits 400 metres from the coast and has a population of 300.
The students of Nauru Secondary School will reflect on the experience in the 1980s when the country – 24 square kilometres with a total population of 18,000 – suffered devastating King Tides.
Meanwhile, the students from Vanuatu Central School will recall the 12-metre high tsunami of 1878 and the seven tsunamis since as they seek to develop simple but hard-hitting posters to emphasize the importance of preparedness.
The Pacific youth ambassadors were bid farewell by the Japanese Ambassador to Fiji, H.E. Masahiro Omura at a special World Tsunami Awareness event in his official residence.
New York, 3 November, 2017 - There needs to be an urgent shift from managing disasters to managing disaster risk, according to the UN Deputy Secretary- General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, speaking to a High Level Panel this week in New York.
The panel was convened to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day on November 5 and featured representatives from some of the world’s most disaster exposed countries including Chile, Japan, Indonesia and the Maldives.
The event was moderated by Mr. Robert Glasser, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, who recalled: “Tsunamis are rare events but over 11 million people have been affected by tsunamis in the last 25 years, and more than 250,000 have lost their lives.”
Opening the discussion, Ms. Mohammed said: “In light of what happened recently in the Caribbean, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and in the Horn of Africa where millions of people have been scrambling for basic necessities it is clear that sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs will remain elusive or significantly delayed so long as disasters are left unchecked. It is difficult to maintain social and economic progress if development gains are so regularly and profoundly wiped out.”
She added: “We urgently need to shift from managing disasters to preventing disasters by better managing existing risks as outlined in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in Japan in 2015.” The Sendai Framework is the global plan for reducing disaster losses.
During the one-hour discussion, representatives from tsunami-affected countries stressed the importance of early warning systems and evacuation procedures to save more lives from disasters but also emphasized the power of knowledge and education.
“Tsunamis do not happen frequently but it is better to be prepared and to have no regrets,” said Ambassador Koro Bessho, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations which jointly organized the event with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the worst such event in living memory, caused an estimated 230,000 deaths and more than US$ 10 billion dollars in losses and acted as a wake-up call for many Asian countries which are today better prepared to anticipate a tsunami.
Mr. Willem Rampangilei, head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, said: “After the 2004 tsunami, we enacted a new disaster management law, and we undertook a number of policies that have made us much safer. We believe that integrating disaster risk reduction principles in school curriculum and empowering local communities are key to making us more resilient.”
Mr. Ali Naseer Mohamed, Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations in New York noted the unique geography of his country with more than 1,100 islands and atolls with many lying below one meter above average sea level.
He recalled that before 2004 Maldives had no idea that it could be hit by a tsunami or affected by an earthquake happening in Indonesia. “We have learned the lesson but as the highest place in our island is a coconut tree we have invested a lot in community education to make our islands safer,” he said.
This was a message reinforced by Ms. Shairi Mathur, UNDP Bangkok, who said that “ In Maldives, one school is one community. So when you invest in school drills you build the resilience of entire communities.” UNDP has just conducted more than 90 drills in 16 countries in Asia-Pacific as part of an ongoing programme.
Mr. Georgi Velikov Panayotov, Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations in New York who was among the panelists, said that his country has never been hit by a tsunami but he still remembers the force of the water and the wave that hit him when he was on vacation in Thailand with his family in December 2004.
“I can tell you that you cannot stop a tsunami wave when it happens. There is no wall that can protect you. Having early warning systems and educating people about the devastating power of tsunamis are the only ways to reduce risk. I was pleased to see when I went back to Thailand two years later that the country is now equipped with a working early warning system that will save more people if it happens again,” he said.
Mr. Glasser also highlighted the power of education and the importance of developing and strengthening people-centred early warning systems, emphasizing the special needs of children, women and the elderly who are among the most vulnerable groups to disasters.
“Tsunamis know no border and a perfect early warning system is of no use if people do not know how to act on it,” concluded Dr. Ana Peršić, Science Specialist at UNESCO. “We are currently carrying out drills in Algeria and along the Mediterranean Sea so more communities, which are less at risk, can also be safe in the future. Not all tsunamis happen in Asia and no single country can tackle this challenge alone but we can all work together to be better prepared,” she said.
GENEVA, 27 October: The build up to World Tsunami Awareness Day on November 5 started in earnest today with a high-level gathering of tsunami-affected countries discussing how to reduce tsunami risk
“In Japan we say be prepared and have no regrets,” said Mr. M. Teru Fukui, Member of Japan’s House of Representatives during the panel discussion today on ‘Reducing the number of disaster affected people’ at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Mr. Fukui said, “Since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (2011) local governments have been supporting projects for group relocation. Homes which are vulnerable to tsunamis are no longer being built; and maps, evacuation routes, tsunami evacuation towers are being constructed.
“If we deepen the understanding of the next generation about disasters risks, it will help to decrease impact of disasters. Memories can be lost so they must be passed on,” he said.
Mr. Robert Glasser, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction said: “A key reason why we mark World Tsunami Awareness Day is that tsunamis have no season. We do not know when or where the next big one will strike but over 11 million people have been affected by tsunamis in the last 25 years, and over 250,000 people have lost their lives.
“The Sendai Framework advocates a multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management. Preparations for a tsunami will stand us in good stead in preparations for floods, storms and earthquakes.”
Mr. Hasan Kleib, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nation Office at Geneva said that since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Indonesia had put a comprehensive tsunami early warning system in place.
“The Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Executing Agency (BRR) for Aceh and Nias, government programmes and coordination of efforts by non-governmental organizations saw towns and villages restored five years after the tsunami. This collaborative mechanism has proved to be effective and is a reference for future responses.”
Ms Hala Hameed, Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Maldives said, “the 2004 Tsunami swept over the entire nation. There was nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. We had to evacuate 13 islands permanently.
“We have focused on a ‘build back better’ strategy. The lessons we have learned are: build resilient communities, and focus on disaster preparedness and stronger internal frameworks. We are setting up emergency response and early warning systems for multi hazards.
“At the community level we have established disaster management mechanisms. The long term resilience of our islands is now a national priority which involves consultations with communities. We are also pursuing multilateral and bilateral partnerships. Technical and financial sectors need support,” said Ms Hameed.
Ms Pamela Moraga, Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations Office at Geneva said Chile had learned much since the 2010 Earthquake and Tsunami.
“We never overestimate our readiness and we are always in a state of awareness. Loss of communication cannot be allowed. We avoid decision chain overload. We also conduct regular exercises to see if systems work, and use communication more effectively. We also have strong construction and seismic codes. We can learn how to survive if our populations learn how to confront disasters,” she said.
Dr. Stephanie Girardclos, from the University of Geneva, Department of Earth Sciences and the Institute of Environmental Sciences (ISE) said that research over the last five years revealed that there had been six lake tsunamis from Lausanne to Geneva over the past 4,000 years with waves that were 8 metres to 13 metres high to 8 m from Lausanne to Geneva.
“We are now aware that we have to build a culture of tsunami awareness but the short wave arrival time is challenging for early warning systems. About 10,000 to 100,000 people are at risk. The Swiss authorities are now processing information and pursuing a solution.”
The Panel discussion was jointly hosted by the Government of Japan and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) ahead of World Tsunami Awareness Day (5 November).