Blog with us about the GPDRR13

Legislators and Governance for DRR consultation meeting this morning May 20th

Figures are quite alarming. Disasters killed over 1.2 million people and affected 2.9 billion people in the last 12 years. The impact on society is significant as it raises unemployment and poverty rates. Also, more and more property, assets, capitals, companies and investments are located in vulnerable regions like Asia. Intra-Asian export accounted for 74% of trade in 2010 and the region is expected to grow 6% in 2013. However, environmental degradations and natural disasters exacerbate economic insecurity and undermine economic growth.

Economic losses are bigger than economic growth. The world is moving from high impact and high frequency catastrophes caused by nature or human. The future does not seem so bright. Therefore, building resilience and reducing risks are both important and necessary for world sustainability. Recent accomplishments must be protected to sustain development. Without Disaster Risk Reductions (DRR) sustainable development cannot be achieved.

Governments have been challenged to take disaster risks into consideration when it comes to plan and manage development. There is a need for appropriate and clear governance. Lack of governance, inadequate planning and bad practices undermine significantly social, economic and environment pillars of sustainable development. Curbing the trend of growth risk is greatly necessary and lawmakers have a crucial role to play by working closely with executive powers and with civil society.

Over 40 parliamentarians from all over the world attended the Legislators and Governance for DRR consultation meeting this morning May 20^th, two years after IPU members received an advocacy kit on disaster risk reduction from UNISDR. It was a great success for the organizers IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) and UNISDR. They shared their experiences, practices and views on risk disaster reductions and risks management as well as underlined the importance of their role in DRR-related issues.

Parliamentarians can make a difference by intervening in government spending and involving key players. Architects, engineers, inspectors and technicians should be involved actively in implementing the law because they are the ones working on the field. They build bridges, schools, hospitals, stadiums, plants, etc. They have the knowledge and the science to assess risks and can be consulted for DRR regulations.

Risks must be calculated and included in urban planning as well as agriculture planning. Disaster risk reduction is a matter of all political parties, thus it should not divide politicians. DRR must not be understood as a spending but as an investment. The money invested in long-term solution is money saved for the future. For example, it is smarter to build a bridge once in an appropriate spot than build it three times or more in an inadequate location.

Governments should allocate suitable budget resources to DRR management. UNISDR guidelines indicate that 1% of GDP is necessary in risk prevention. Allocating resources is a major issue for parliamentarians; every country has its own issues and position on DRR management. Money should not be used only to recover from calamities but to prevent them. Fighting informal housing, providing post-disaster structures or giving room for disables to seek refuge when a catastrophe occurs are investments that decrease damages.

Parliamentarians must seek for public interest and safety. Conflict of interest must be avoided at all cost when it comes to decision making. Lobby pressures from international companies should not influence lawmakers and weaken DRR regulations. Sometimes, laws exist but they are not put on practice. Governments become passive on risk prevention and favour unsustainable growth. Bangladesh recent building collapse is one example. DRR framework existed, but was not implemented at all by local subcontracts.

Studies and reports related on DRR must be regularly provided by governments. It is an opportunity to monitor the implementation of regulations and their impact on the populations. Government can receive a feed-back about DRR activities which could provide background for more advancement and better policies. Deputies that represent the voice of their citizen and know the characteristics of their region must encourage DRR research. Scientific information and statistics gathered can improve law-decision making.

Demography planning is an important topic in risk prevention. Instead of encouraging people in areas that are already overpopulated, government should attract citizen in less risky region. Usually overpopulation brings negative impact on environment, increasing disaster risks. Controlling population may sound drastic, but it can have a huge impact on reducing risks.

During the consultation, participants underlined the importance of regional collaboration. Accidents in one area affect indirectly another and can have serious consequence on the civil society and the economy. For example, Central America which is considered one of the most vulnerable regions in the world is developing collaboration among all local DDR agencies. They can share their experience and knowledge in order to develop best practice and good guidance.

Education was a focal point to raise awareness on disaster risk reduction. Environmental question and DRR question are two different issues even though they are interrelated. People tend to be confused. It is important to make sure that people understand the consequences of bad practices on the environment and the life of citizens. So, all citizens have the tools to prevent disaster instead of recovering from them.

Main points of the meeting are the following: regional collaboration, education, budget allocation management, action of parliamentarians, active promotion and implementation of law, monitoring of DRR activities and system of norms that contribute to sustainable growth. Despite progress, 2015 goal will not be targeted. Governments and parliamentarians must be much more active if they really want to tackle DRR issues. Waiting for disasters to happened and passive behaviours cannot be tolerated in 21^st century, because technology and tools exists to help anticipating natural catastrophes.

This session intended to contribute to the on-going consultations towards the Post-2015 Framework for DRR and the Post-2015 Development Agenda. There is only two years left before the next conference in Japan, scheduled for March 2015.

For the last 13 years, disasters caused at 2.7 trillion USD of economic losses in the world according to UNISDR. The United Nations agency is responsible to coordinate disaster risk reduction and ensure synergies among DRR activities. The Global Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction 2013 held in Geneva aims at promoting a dialogue among all stakeholders on DRR.

Reported by Vanessa Esteves