UNITED NATIONS
United Nations
Association of Slovenia
SUMMER SCHOOL
14 - 17 SEPTEMBER 2015
WHAT KIND OF FUTURE WILL 2015 BRING?
The international landscape of 2015 is marked by the crucial multilateral processes. Since the new development landscape is being discussed, this year is also vital for international development cooperation. In March, world leaders met at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan. At the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia in July, means of implementation of the future development goals were discussed. New set of development goals, called Sustainable Development Goals will be adopted at the UN Summit to Adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda in New York in September. Climate change agenda will be addressed at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference in December.
In the light of those processes, the European Union decided to mark 2015 as the European Year for Development 2015 with the aim to promote debate about international development cooperation. International agreements made this year, especially the post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, will address global challenges for the next 15 years.
WHERE IS THE FUTURE GOING TO BE DISCUSSED?
Disaster Risk
Reduction
Sustainable
Development
Goals
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
"There is no such thing as a natural disaster, only natural hazards."
- UNISDR
Disaster risk reduction is a process that aims to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, storms, heatwaves, floods, droughts, tsunamis, wildfires, volcano eruptions and cyclones through an ethic of prevention. Natural hazards are often followed by natural disasters. Their severity depends on how much impact a hazard has on society and the environment. But the scale of the impact in turn depends on the choices we make for our lives and for our environment. This kind of choices are related to our ways of growing food, building our homes, what kind of government do we have, how our financial system works and even what we teach in schools. Each decision and action makes us more vulnerable to disasters - or more resilient to them.
Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts by analysing and reducing the causal factors of disasters. Some examples of the latter practices could be reducing exposure to hazards, lessening vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness and early warning for adverse events.
Even though disaster risk reduction includes disciplines like disaster management, disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness, it also is part of sustainable development. Crucial for development activities to be sustainable is reducing disaster risk that is encomapassing them. On the other hand, unsound development policies will increase disaster risk - and disaster losses with it. Thus, DRR involves every part of society, every part of government, and every part of the professional and private sector.
"We know we can not prevent a hazard from happening, but we can prevent it from becoming a disaster."
- UNISDR
"The more governments, UN agencies, organizations, businesses and civil society understand risk and vulnerability, the better equipped they will be to mitigate disasters when they strike and save more lives."
- Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015
The Sendai Framework was adopted by UN Member States on 18 March 2015 at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai City, Japan. It is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders. It aims for the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries.