The UN Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed in discussion with UNISDR head, Mr. Robert Glasser, at this week's tsunami event in New York

By Brigitte Leoni

New York, 3 November, 2017 - There needs to be an urgent shift from managing disasters to managing disaster risk, according to the UN Deputy Secretary- General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, speaking to a High Level Panel this week in New York.

The panel was convened to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day on November 5 and featured representatives from some of the world’s most disaster exposed countries including Chile, Japan, Indonesia and the Maldives.

The event was moderated by Mr. Robert Glasser, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, who recalled: “Tsunamis are rare events but over 11 million people have been affected by tsunamis in the last 25 years, and more than 250,000 have lost their lives.”

Opening the discussion, Ms. Mohammed said: “In light of what happened recently in the Caribbean, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and in the Horn of Africa where millions of people have been scrambling for basic necessities it is clear that sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs will remain elusive or significantly delayed so long as disasters are left unchecked. It is difficult to maintain social and economic progress if development gains are so regularly and profoundly wiped out.” 

She added: “We urgently need to shift from managing disasters to preventing disasters by better managing existing risks as outlined in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in Japan in 2015.” The Sendai Framework is the global plan for reducing disaster losses.