Armenia’s Minister of Emergency Situations, Mr. Hrachya Rostomyan, echoed calls for strengthening international and regional cooperation. He recalled the devastating Spitak earthquake 30 years ago and thanked all the countries who stood by and supported Armenia. He said: “We have learnt important lessons and have a new rigorous system for disaster risk management.”

The Minister of Defence Mr. Davit Tonoyan, said: “Disaster risk reduction cannot be tackled solely by the Ministries of Emergency Situations.  We need to work on environmental protection and the wider security enterprise. We need a whole of government approach to disaster risk reduction and resilience building efforts.”

On Monday, Ms. Mizutori addressed members of the Armenian National Assembly, and said that parliamentarians can use their influence to ensure that a risk-sensitive approach permeates the entire decision-making process, notably when it comes to public investment, finance and budgets.

"Reducing disaster risk pays dividends, and the value-for-money argument is not difficult to make but needs to be repeated frequently," she said.

Her remarks led to a lively debate on legislation for disaster risk reduction and related matters.

Date:

27 Jun 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Europe (UNISDR EUR)

Hazards:

Earthquake

Countries:

Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan

Regions:

Europe, Asia