Abstract
This article provides a brief review of the progress made in the 5 years since implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. It also explains the importance of the Hyogo Framework as the appropriate policy guidance tool for reducing risk and vulnerability to natural hazards or disaster risk reduction (DRR). It is based on the premise that natural hazards are increasingly threatening the development gains made in many countries. It is only by addressing all of the five priority areas identified in the Hyogo Framework that a particular government or community can effectively reduce its risk to natural hazards and thus reduce mortality and other negative impacts from these hazards; hence, the relevance of understanding the Hyogo Framework’s various components and approaches (multi-hazard, multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder) as well as its implications with regard to other policy areas, in particular adapting to climate change, achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and ensuring sustainable development. The article further explains how the use of the Hyogo Framework for adaptation to climate change also contributes to reducing risk from geological hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Finally, some specific recommendations are made to enhance the implementation of the Hyogo Framework in its second 5 years of application (2010–2015).
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The Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015): Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, available at http://www.unisdr.org/eng/hfa/docs/Hyogo-framework-for-action-english.pdf
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The first World Conference on the subject was held at Yokohama, Japan, 23–27 May 1994. At that time, the concept of “natural” disasters still prevailed among experts and thus was included in the title of the Conference. By the time the second conference was held in 2005, the adjective “natural” had been dropped in order to emphasize that disasters are caused mainly by social vulnerability and not only by natural hazards. The scope of the Hyogo Framework was defined in its preamble as encompassing disasters caused by hazards of natural origin and related environmental and technological hazards and risks. It thus reflects a holistic and multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management and the relationship between these hazards, which can have a significant impact on social, economic, cultural and environmental systems, as stressed in the Yokohama Strategy (section I, part B, letter I, p. 8).
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The Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World: Guidelines for Natural Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Mitigation and its Plan of Action (“Yokohama Strategy”) was adopted (1994) at the first World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction (Yokohama, 23–27 May 1994), building on the mid-term review of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990–1999).
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See Ben Wisner and Peter Walker in Beyond Kobe (2005), pp 4–5, at http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/thematic-sessions/Beyond-Kobe-may-2005.pdf
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A non-exhaustive list includes the ProVention Consortium, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, ActionAid International, OXFAM, CARE International, Save the Children, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Asian Disaster Reduction Center, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre, National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal.
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Ben Wisner, Let the children teach us (2006), p 6.
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UNISDR is the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).
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Global assessment report on disaster risk reduction 2009: risk and poverty in a changing climate, invest today for a safer tomorrow. Full text at http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/report/index.php?id=9413
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Ben Wisner, Let the children teach us (2006), p 8.
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UNESCO is the UN Education, Science and Culture Organization.
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UNICEF is the UN’s Children Fund.
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A set of indicators was developed following the Kobe-Hyogo Conference in order to guide and assess progress in HFA implementation, These are contained in Annex 2.
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More detailed information on each country’s experience may be found at: http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/progress/?pid:3&pil:1
- 15.
Global assessment report on disaster risk reduction 2009: risk and poverty in a changing climate, invest today for a safer tomorrow. Full text at http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/report/index.php?id=9413
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The full report of the second session of the Global platform for disaster risk reduction can be found at: http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/publications/v.php?id=11963
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See paragraph 20 of the Chair’s summary of the second session of the global platform for DRR at http://www.preventionweb.net/globalplatform/2009/background/documents/GP09-Chair’s-Summary.pdf
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UNDP is the United Nations Development Programme.
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WFP is the World Food Programme of the UN system.
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WMO is the World Meteorological Organization of the UN system.
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Ben Wisner, “Let the children teach us”, p 7, UNISDR, 2006.
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With notable exceptions of countries like China, India and Brazil, which, by the sheer size of their populations, distort the average figures for the world, since numbers are still increasing in many other countries.
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Although apparently redundant, the term “natural” is utilized here to differentiate these ecosystems from those that have been created or enhanced by human intervention and which tend to be in a better state.
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Among many other sources, RTBF (Belgian TV) produced evidence in a video aired on 6 January 2010 of such impacts, called “De plein fouet, le climat vu du Sud” of the series called “Planète en question”.
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The Hyogo Framework defines its scope as “encompassing disasters caused by hazards of natural origin and related environmental and technological hazards and risks. It thus reflects a holistic and multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management and the relationship between natural hazards and disasters, which can have a significant impact on social, economic, cultural and environmental systems, as stressed in the Yokohama Strategy (section I, part B, letter I, p. 8)”. It further recommends that “an integrated, multi-hazard approach to disaster risk reduction should be factored into policies, planning and programming related to sustainable development, relief, rehabilitation, and recovery activities in post-disaster and post-conflict situations in disaster-prone countries” and it refers to a similar recommendation in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August–4 September 2002, paragraphs 37, 65.
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UNFCCC is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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Joint submission by the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) and ISDR to the UNFCCC Ad-hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action, available at http://www.unisdr.org/eng/risk-reduction/climate-change/docs/IASC-ISDR_paper_cc_and_DDR.pdf
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The full text of Bali Action Plan may be found at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2007/cop13/eng/06a01.pdf#page=3
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Ben Wisner: The late Brazilian adult education pioneer, Paulo Freire, thought of education as a collective study of reality and problem solving, and made policy recommendations using a Portuguese term roughly translatable as “consciousness- raising”. In relation to disaster risk, “consciousness” is a useful term, going far deeper into the root causes of vulnerability than does the common expression “risk awareness”. For example, in Turkey between 1995 and 2003, a series of deadly earthquakes was met with a crescendo of public outcry and a slowly deepening public understanding of what had to be demanded of the construction industry (Mitchell and Page 2005). This, too, is education.
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AIDS is the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
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Briceño, S. (2010). Investing Today for a Safer Future: How the Hyogo Framework for Action can Contribute to Reducing Deaths During Earthquakes. In: Garevski, M., Ansal, A. (eds) Earthquake Engineering in Europe. Geotechnical, Geological, and Earthquake Engineering, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9544-2_18
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