She said that the Forum attended by 131 delegates from over 20 countries was an opportunity to review progress on the Asia Regional Plan for Implementation of the Sendai Framework and clarify outstanding issues that need to be addressed.

The Forum reviewed efforts towards achieving goals in the Asia Regional Plan for Implementation of the Sendai Framework, in preparation for the forthcoming Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in July.

Delegates emphasised that policies and commitments must include all of society, reflecting the most vulnerable and the voices of disability, youth and gender to ensure that no-one is left behind if disaster strikes. Significant challenges also remain with high frequency, low impact disasters, the meeting heard.

Speaking after the conference, Loretta Hieber Girardet, UNISDR’s Chief for the Asia-Pacific, said: “Over the past two days, I’ve heard a resounding call from governments and groups across the Asia-Pacific that commitments to reduce disaster risk must translate into action at community level.

“Communities need to be empowered to build their resilience to disasters and communities need to be listened to at the national level. There is a lot of support for this in discussions about increasing the number of national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction by 2020 as required by target (e) of the Sendai Framework.”

The Drafting Committee for the Asian Ministerial Conference, consisting of representatives of Member States, Intergovernmental Organisations and stakeholder groups, was also constituted and had its first meeting on the sidelines of the IAP Forum chaired by Maj. Gen. Badral Tuvshin, Chief of National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia.

The Committee will consider IAP Forum inputs and feedback on the draft outcome documents of the Asian Ministerial Conference, in particular, the Ulaanbaatar Declaration and the Action Plan 2018-2020 and propose the final draft documents to the Ministerial Conference.

At the conference in July, government ministers will step in to make firm political commitments to tackle disaster risk. Incorporating advice from civil society groups, experts and scientists, attendees will adopt the action plan and share commitments for implementation at the July conference.

Follow @UNISDR_AsiaPac and #AMCDRR2018 for updates on the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in July.   

Date:

2 May 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (UNISDR AP)

Themes:

Governance

Hazards:

Cyclone, Drought, Earthquake, Flood

Countries:

Mongolia

Regions:

Asia, Oceania