Fourth Africa regional platform for disaster risk reduction, Arusha: Summary statement

A statement in which the participants of the 4th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), including governments, intergovernmental regional organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors, United Nations, academic and technical institutions, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Government Organizations, mayors and local governments, community leaders, parliamentarians, youth, media and the private sector, committed to build the resilience of African communities and nations to disaster risk and adapt to a changing climate, in agreement with the priorities of the internationally agreed Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and with the global agenda leading to a HFA2 in 2015.

They reviewed the achievements and challenges in implementing the Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and its Extended Programme of Action and developed some recommendations to guide stakeholders within their areas of interest and their institutional mandates: (i) to integrate DRR and resilience as part of sustainable development strategies; (ii) to engage youth and physically-challenged persons and to strengthen local institutions to renew public commitment to building resilience; (iii) for the development sector to integrate DRR and climate change adaptation into their plans, programmes and actions, including national efforts to implement the post 2015 development agenda, Rio+20 and HFA2; (iv) to use African academic and research institutions for resilience building at grass-roots and other levels; (v) to support information sharing and transparency at national level; (vi) while continuing to pursue HFA1 priorities beyond 2015, to build on the progress and lessons learned while providing a broader vision that embraces innovation and changing conditions for HFA2; (vii) for governments to create the constitutional, institutional and policy environments, and legal frameworks, for building resilience and protecting the vulnerable; and (viii) to engage private sector following the five essentials for Business in DRR agreed in a parallel event on Private Sector Partnership.

They call for a commitment to focus on the following issues discussed in the six thematic sessions: (1) DRR at the regional level; (2) DRR at the sub-regional level; (3) increased political commitment and DRR investment; (4) risk identification, monitoring and early warning; (5) resilient cities in Africa; and (6) reducing risk - climate change adaptation and emerging regional challenges.