Minister Settem also advocated stronger integration of disaster risk reduction into planning and construction processes at a much earlier stage with more collaboration between the public and private sectors.

The head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, AFAD, Mehmet Gulluoglu, said much of the work of disaster risk management needed to be done in collaboration with other ministries including health, education, environment and finance.

He said that over 1,300 buildings in Istanbul had been renovated and rebuilt and more remained to be done.

Summarizing the discussions, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, said that political leadership was vital to accelerate the work of disaster risk reduction.

Ms. Mizutori said she took on board the comments about new and emerging risks and pointed out that the Sendai Framework had extended disaster risk management beyond natural hazards to include human-made hazards.

Minister Rixi highlighted the participants agreement to issue a Communique which emphasized the importance of disaster risk assessments as a prerequisite for infrastructure investments.

At the same time, participants agreed to promote public and private risk-informed investments and capital flows while ensuring that the private sector is engaged in contributing to building resilience to disasters.

Date:

22 Nov 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Themes:

Capacity Development, Complex Emergency, Disaster Risk Management

Countries:

Bulgaria, Italy, Malta, Norway, Turkey

Regions:

Europe