President of Mexico, Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto, and the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, listen to a speech at the opening of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (Photo: UNISDR)

By Denis McClean

CANCUN, Mexico, 24 May, 2017 - The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction was inaugurated today by the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, as some 6,000 participants descended on the coastal town of Cancun for a series of working meetings to make progress on reducing disaster losses.

The President welcomed participants and said disasters have no borders as he welcomed delegates from 189 countries who were meeting for the first time since the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction at a UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan two years ago.

President Peña Nieto evoked Mexico’s ancient past and the fabled early warning system developed by the Mayan people at the Temple of the Wind in nearby Tulum as he recited the country’s history of exposure to a wide range of disasters including earthquakes, floods, volcanos and drought.

He fully endorsed the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the importance of good risk governance and strong institutions for achieving a reduction in disaster losses.

The President said there was nothing more important than protecting human life and Mexico was fortunate to have strong national civil protection system in place. “The most important thing we have learned is to act in a preventive manner and to be prepared in light of unexpected events.”

The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, said that the Adoption of the Sendai Framework was “a remarkable achievement, the culmination of three years of consultations with governments and civil society across all regions, and the fruits of ten years of learning from its predecessor the Hyogo Framework for Action.”