Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

15-17 May 2017, Geneva

OPENING OF THE MEETING

Remarks by Moderator Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction

As we conclude this opening ceremony, I would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the government of Switzerland and the city of Geneva for hosting us once more in these surroundings, so familiar to many of you who have attended previous Global Platforms.

Indeed, a lot has happened since the Global Platform last took place in Geneva in 2013.

At that point we were in the middle of a three-year consultation process on the text of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction which was adopted four years ago in Sendai, Japan.

That year 2015 was the beginning of a four-year streak of hot weather that has changed forever the disaster risk landscape by wiping out many preconceived notions about how climate and the weather should behave.

Anomalous events are on the rise. Wildfires in the Arctic Circle. A record breaking Atlantic hurricane season. Cyclones hitting Mozambique. More frequent droughts and heatwaves around the globe. And rising sea-levels continue to threaten the survival of centuries old ways of life, especially on small islands where resilience is now a matter of survival.

Over the first four years of the Sendai Framework we have also seen how prescient it was that the text expanded the traditional limits of disaster risk reduction beyond natural hazards to include man-made hazards as well as related environmental, technological and biological hazards and risks.

This complex nexus and the systemic nature of disaster risk is dealt with in some detail in the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction which will be launched shortly in this room.

Science cannot be more clear. The world needs to transform, and it must transform now.

Critically, we must not despair. It is easy to be overwhelmed by so much bad news, but I truly believe that crisis need not defeat us; instead we should see it as an opportunity to transform.

We are at a pivotal moment on the journey towards building nations and communities resilient to disasters.

And there has been no greater opportunity than now to address the interconnectedness of our world’s crisis state- through the interdependency of the world’s multilateral system.

I am enormously comforted and compelled by this year’s Global Platform. We have assembled more than 3000 concerned and committed individuals from governments, from the fields of science, public policy and academia, from civil society and international organisations, from media to concerned citizens to debate, discuss and action clear steps for reducing disaster risk and building resilience.

We are gathered around the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: the global blueprint for addressing risk, agreed to in 2015 by all Member States.

I believe that what we will see and hear at the Global Platform over the next three days is that when we act collectively, no problem is insurmountable.

We are making progress on many fronts:

Indicators are in place for measuring progress on achieving the Sendai Framework’s seven targets.

More national disaster loss databases are being established. We have launched the Sendai Framework Monitor to facilitate reporting against the targets.

At the same time, we have put into place a Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism which ensures that the voices of civil society are heard loud and clear from many sectors including women, youth, science and the private sector.

Many of you here in this audience today represent those groups and you are here to ensure that we move from commitment to action, from words to deeds.

A lot has already been achieved in the preparatory days and I look forward to hearing more during the next three days about the recommendations from the Science and Policy Forum, the 4th World Reconstruction Conference, the 2nd Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference and the Stakeholder Forum.

We have a very rich and purposeful agenda ahead of us before we hear the Chair’s Summary and Recommendations presented in this room on Friday.

It is my honor to join you at this Global Platform. Thank you.