“Capacity building is an issue in Ghana where not enough people are trained in disaster risk reduction," added Eric Nana Agyemang from The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). "Education in disaster risk reduction should start at the early age from school and then at the workplace as well. We need to have professional trainers on disaster risk reduction to train us first,” Mr. Nana said.

The two-day Geneva consultation also discussed the establishment of a “Disaster Risk Reduction Capacity Building Marketplace” where Member States, organizations and other stakeholders will make known their capacity building needs, and choose between different capacity building service providers.  

“The 95-page document is an important tool and guide to support governments in the implementation of the Sendai Framework and in particular to achieve Target (e) which aims at increasing the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020”, said Sanjaya Bhatia, Head of UNISDR’s Incheon Office and Global Education and Training Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction in Korea.

“Consultations have been very fruitful and have demonstrated the clear need for more coherence and coordination between the different existing programmes in capacity development in disaster risk reduction. The document reflects the two-day group discussions and highlights potential partnerships that will be crucial to support countries in the Sendai Framework monitoring process and their achievement of the seven targets and  four priorities for action of the Sendai Framework,” Mr. Bhatia added.

Participants in the Geneva meeting included representatives of Member States, Inter-Governmental Organizations involved in capacity development for disaster risk reduction, UN agencies, the Capacity Development for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI), science and technology groups, academia, private sector and other stakeholder groups who reviewed a  zero draft developed after a first round of consultations with Member States after the last Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Cancun, Mexico.

UNISDR Director, Kirsi Madi, opened the meeting yesterday and empahasized that capacity building has never been so important.

“Between 2005 and 2015, disasters cost more than US$ 1,4 trillion and pushed millions of people into poverty. We want to ensure that capacity development programmes in disaster risk reduction lead to reduce disaster losses and strengthen resilience,” she said.

Member States have identified the need for technical support in building the capacity of institutions to implement the Sendai Framework at the national and local level and tasked the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to bring coherence to the capacity development services provided by a variety of actors, including United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, state-led and private sector stakeholders.

Date:

15 Mar 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Themes:

Capacity Development, Advocacy & Media

Regions:

Africa, Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania