Regional Countries Adopt Revised Action Plan On Disaster Risk Reduction

#Jamaica, November 5, 2021 – The seventh Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean (RP21) concluded at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, on Thursday (November 4) with participating countries adopting the revised Regional Action Plan for implementing the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction.

This decision, which was informed by the outcome of civil society and youth consultations at the conference, followed deliberations on the Plan by delegates attending the Ministerial and High-Level Authorities Meeting.

They included Prime Minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Hon. Brigadier Mark Phillips, and 10 other government ministers, who met with representatives from 29 regional countries.

The Sendai Framework, which runs from 2015 to 2030, is the successor agreement to the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015), which had been the most encompassing international accord, to date,  on disaster risk reduction.

It was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015 and endorsed by the UN General Assembly three months later.

Speaking at the conference closing ceremony, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, said the regional assessment report for 2021 documents the interventions needed to reduce disaster risks across the Americas and the Caribbean.

He noted that failure to tackle the root causes could potentially increase those risks, resulting in environmental, economic, and social losses.

“The disaster data and risk information must now be integrated in government policies right across sectors… towards tackling… the nature of the risks that we continue to face as a region, [which] is one of the most vulnerable areas [globally]. We, therefore, need… to effectively build disaster resilience for the future,” Mr. McKenzie underscored.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Elizabeth Riley, who spoke virtually, said that States must ensure that the revised Regional Action Plan incorporates the systemic nature of risks and the lessons learnt from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

She noted that these include the need to strengthen risk governance and articulation between disaster risk reduction and public health.

“Along with the elements that were strengthened in this Plan, are the linkages with mechanisms of social protection to protect the most vulnerable, the crucial role of the private sector in disaster risk reduction, the importance of ensuring access to basic services, and the resilience of critical infrastructure,” said Ms. Riley

She said that adoption of the Ministerial and High-Level Authorities Declaration includes commitments on critical aspects that need to be addressed in the face of the complexity of a pandemic recovery, the climate challenge, and the need for higher ambition for the implementation of the Sendai Framework in tandem with the 2030 Agenda.

“Strengthening multisectoral, multi-stakeholder, and multilevel risk governance and boosting investments in resilience become fundamental to achieving these goals. Social contracts… anchored in universal systems of social protection… that collectively manage risks are [also] required,” Ms. Riley added.

The four-day semi-virtual conference was jointly organised by the Government of Jamaica, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and CDEMA.

It was held from November 1 to 4, under the theme ‘Building Resilient Economies in the Americas and the Caribbean’.

Among the other programmed engagements was a Declaration emerging from a youth forum on disaster risk reduction that was presented during the Ministerial Round Table Meeting and adopted by the participating delegates.