Welthungerhilfe: Towards the Next Generation of Risk Reduction and Resilience (Brennpunkt 30/2013)

The importance of disaster risk reduction for inclusive, sustainable development has long been neglected. With the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in 2005 this situation started to change slowly. The HFA is “the first plan to explain, describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses” (UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR). Already this year the course will be set for the future of the HFA and thus of Disaster Risk Reduction. The Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva in May 2013, organized by UNISDR, is part of a global review process on progress towards achieving HFA’s objectives and priorities.

The paper aims at describing the main challenges for the post 2015 framework for disaster risk reduction and formulates demands from the view point of a civil society organization working in the field of disaster risk reduction. At the heart of Welthungerhilfe’s engagement are people living in communities that are not resilient to extreme shocks and stresses. When the International Community decides on a new framework for disaster risk reduction (HFA2) in 2015, a more radical change is required in how the HFA2 is conceived, designed and executed to adequately represent experiences of vulnerable people and ensure full participation of all stakeholders in the process of building resilience in order to reduce risks to acceptable levels (GNDR 2012). A post-2015 disaster risk reduction framework must strengthen the resilience and ability of people and their communities to anticipate, organize for and adapt to shocks and stresses of all kinds: short and long-term, natural and human-derived, rapid and slow onset, rural and urban, economic, social, environmental, geopo-litical and climate change. Community resilience is the basic building block and foundation of national resilience and needs to be at the center of a post-2015 disaster risk reduction framework.

Click here to read the paper.The importance of disaster risk reduction for inclusive, sustainable development has long been neglected. With the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in 2005 this situation started to change slowly. The HFA is “the first plan to explain, describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses” (UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR). Already this year the course will be set for the future of the HFA and thus of Disaster Risk Reduction. The Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva in May 2013, organized by UNISDR, is part of a global review process on progress towards achieving HFA’s objectives and priorities.

The paper aims at describing the main challenges for the post 2015 framework for disaster risk reduction and formulates demands from the view point of a civil society organization working in the field of disaster risk reduction. At the heart of Welthungerhilfe’s engagement are people living in communities that are not resilient to extreme shocks and stresses. When the International Community decides on a new framework for disaster risk reduction (HFA2) in 2015, a more radical change is required in how the HFA2 is conceived, designed and executed to adequately represent experiences of vulnerable people and ensure full participation of all stakeholders in the process of building resilience in order to reduce risks to acceptable levels (GNDR 2012). A post-2015 disaster risk reduction framework must strengthen the resilience and ability of people and their communities to anticipate, organize for and adapt to shocks and stresses of all kinds: short and long-term, natural and human-derived, rapid and slow onset, rural and urban, economic, social, environmental, geopo-litical and climate change. Community resilience is the basic building block and foundation of national resilience and needs to be at the center of a post-2015 disaster risk reduction framework.

Click here to read the paper.