Partipants at the Expert Group on the Global Risk Assessment Framework Meeting, Geneva, 20-21 November 2017 (Photo: UNISDR/SLandelle)

By David Singh

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 ss a wider spectrum of hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and impacts, viatate of the art acros 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.”