Participants at meeting of European Sendai Framework focal points and civil protection representatives

By Nicholas Ramos

Brussels, 17 October 2019 - European countries have moved a step closer to aligning their civil protection agendas with implementation of the global plan to reduce disaster losses, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Experts from 31 of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UPCM) participating countries met last month for the first time with their National Sendai Framework counterparts in Brussels to identify how they can improve collaboration to achieve Sendai Framework targets including meeting the 2020 deadline to have national and local strategies in place.

Civil protection assistance usually consists of governmental aid delivered in the immediate aftermath of a disaster but assistance made available through the Union Mechanism can also include advice and support to a requesting country on prevention and preparedness measures thus enhancing international cooperation, another key target of the Sendai Framework.

“One of the main goals of establishing our DRR plan has been to fulfill the Sendai Framework requirements. We adopted 101 different measures: the majority of them focusing on engaging citizens in risk and disaster preparedness,” said Carlos Lucio Mendes from the Portuguese National Authority for Civil Protection (ANPC).

Hosted by United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), this first joint meeting focused on reinforcing complementarity between the EU and UN frameworks on disaster risk reduction. 

Developing and implementing disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies under the Sendai Framework is intrinsically linked to the EU-legislated need for countries to carry out risk assessments, risk management capability assessments and disaster risk management plans.