“Let us pursue these action points in a
persistent people-led, people-centred movement for resilience.” – Loy Rego, MARS Practitioner's Network, Mumbai, India
Some
reflections on from the last 3 decades of disaster reduction work inspired by
the three Asian catastrophes whose decadal anniversaries we commemorate on the fifteen minimum standards we need to set for ourselves to achieve in the coming decade and a
half:
1. Effective,
well functioning, Government led multi stakeholder institutional arrangements
for resilience planning and implementation to tackle disaster and climate
risks, at multiple levels in each country.
2. Well
resourced programmes to support implementation from national budgetary
resources, enhanced by locally mobilised contributions and supplemented by
external resources
3. An
early warning system (EWS) that reaches at risk people in a timely manner with
understandable messages.
4. EWS
built on a backbone of local volunteers delivering periodic public education
about the system, and protective actions by individuals and communities to save
lives and livelihood assets and locally appropriate protective infrastructure
to evacuate people and safeguard livelihood assets
5. A
national disaster and climate risk assessment system that can be disaggregated
down to comprehensible risk maps for local jurisdictions, in formats that
aid risk informed decision making by local authorities and the people at risk
6. Preparedness
plans at multiple levels that are developed in an inclusive manner with roles
defined and confirmed for all stakeholders, which are well resourced from local
budgets.
7. Readiness
at multiple levels maintained through well trained and practiced local
authorities, emergency service personnel and local volunteers and a system of
periodic drills and exercises
8. Effective
land use planning and development regulation at both ecosystem level and each
administrative level that respects the protective function, and the
interconnectedness of ecosystems across administrative boundaries
9. National
Building codes enforced by local authorities appropriate to local hazard
profile; with professional capacities of construction sector personnel built;
and shaped by a demand from homeowners; with priority assistance given to those
in most at risk areas living in poor quality housing.
10. Climate and disaster proofing of local livelihoods with adaptation
strategies devised and implemented that are based on localized risk assessments.
11. All new schools and hospitals built and maintained to appropriate
standards of hazard resilience and, with existing schools and hospitals
assessed, repaired and retrofitted to these standards
12. Special attention be paid of the special needs and vulnerabilities
of children, women, aged, people with disability, ethnic and linguistic
minorities, dalits in all preparedness plans and risk reduction programs, while
welcoming and valuing the leadership they bring to their own communities and
multi stakeholder settings.
13. Special attention to developing and implementing risk reduction
strategies for low frequency high severity risks from earthquakes, tsunamis and
technological hazards.
14. Disaster and climate resilience be effectively integrated into
national and sub-national sustainable development strategies and programs,
especially the national programs to implement the Sustainable Development Goals
15.Ensure that the major group system based multi stakeholder multi
constituency engagement in the development of HFA2 be transformed into
continuing involvement in its implementation at national and local levels
and in related resilience building institutional arrangements.
Let us
not wait for the new global framework that emerges from Sendai, nor be constrained
by HFA 2 should it not contain some of these action points. Let us continue to
pursue them by patient, determined efforts community by community, district by
district, province by province, nation by nation in a persistent people led,
people centred movement for resilience.
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