DSG tells ‘weak, insufficient’ disaster risk reduction puts SDGs in jeopardy

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau

UNITED NATIONS, 19th May. Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed told the General Assembly on Thursday that global progress towards disaster risk management has been weak and insufficient, putting the 2030 SDGs at risk.

UNGA met to review progress on implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction -a landmark 2015 agreement to reduce damage, losses and deaths from natural and man-made hazards by the end of the decade.

They adopted a political declaration which calls to improve national mechanisms to share disaster risk data and analysis, including at the regional and international levels.

GA President Csaba Kőrösi said that the midterm review was “our last chance before 2030 to collectively change course”, underscoring the critical need for action.

“Eight years on, we must admit that our progress has not kept pace with the urgency of our days. The known number of people affected by disasters has jumped 80-fold since 2015,” he said.

Ms. Mohammed said that managing risk is not an option but a global commitment.

“Our world is at a defining point in history. As we review our journey halfway to 2030, we must acknowledge that progress has been weak and insufficient,” Ms. Mohammed said.

She said as countries did not meet climate and sustainable development commitments, natural disasters that could have been prevented have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to be uprooted, mainly women, children, and other vulnerable groups.

Ms. Mohammed noted that the situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the “triple crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, the rising cost of living, skyrocketing inequality and the war in Ukraine.

Threats from structural governance omissions within the banking and global financial systems as scientists warn of cascading and irreversible impacts of global warning.

She said “Addressing these challenges means changing our response to risk through systemic thinking, collaborative action, and the smart, agile deployment of responses to prevent, manage and mitigate global risks,”.

Head of the UN Office on for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori noted that it has not been all storm and strife since 2015.

Mami Mizutori said a growing number of governments have established or upgraded national loss accounting systems, and there has been a significant increase in the number of countries with national strategies for disaster risk reduction.

The pogress remains unequal as risks that become disasters continue to disproportionately impact the world’s least developed countries, small island developing States, landlocked developing and African countries, as well as middle-income countries.

“As risks are left unattended, disasters are materializing faster, surpassing our ability to cope, with increasingly dire consequences for people, livelihoods, society and the ecosystems on which we depend,” she said.

“The imperative to realise the outcome, goal and targets of the Sendai Framework is more important today than ever before” she added.