Indonesia hosted another consultative meeting to determine ways to
mainstream disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience into the
post-2015 development agenda on Feb. 19-20. One of the main outcomes
expected from this meeting is to discuss and offer concrete
recommendations for the most essential aspects of DRR and resilience
building that could be integrated into priority goals, targets and
indicators.
DRR and resilience have been an integral part of most
of the deliberations on global development within the United Nations.
Here in New York, efforts to link DRR and resilience with poverty
eradication, climate change and even with conflict have been increasing.
Due to the fact that no country, even the most developed, is
immune from the impact of natural disasters, DRR and resilience have
become one of the rare pertinent issues of common interest of both the
developing and developed world.
The Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), a political manifesto of the Millennium Declaration, which was
launched in 2000, failed to address the importance of DRR and resilience
as the focus of the MDGs had been focused on individual basic needs and
well-being.
The Millennium Declaration, however, did make a few
references to disasters as stipulated in Paragraph 23 of its Chapter
IV: Protecting our common environment and in paragraph 26 of Chapter VI:
Protecting the vulnerable.
Even so, the Millennium Declaration,
which is seen as a more legitimate universal declaration than the
politically crafted MDGs, is unable to address the core of DRR and
resilience.
This is because the references made in the
Millennium Declaration are too general, i.e. to intensify cooperation to
reduce the number and effects of natural and manmade disasters, and too
narrow, i.e. to spare no effort to ensure that children and all
civilian populations that suffer disproportionately the consequences of
natural disasters, genocide, armed conflicts and other humanitarian
emergencies are given every assistance and protection so that they can
resume normal life as soon as possible.
The formulation of the
post-2015 development agenda will be completely different from the
process in formulating MDGs as it will be more inclusive in the sense
that it involves all stakeholders, including locals. The post-2015
process is also seen as more thorough as it has commenced in late 2012
to allow ample time for consultative deliberation.
With that in
mind and the evidence-proved catastrophic impacts of natural disasters
that the world has been witnessing in the last decade, the chance for
DRR and resilience to be integrated into the development agenda of the
post-2015 should be relatively fair.
Within this perspective,
many have pinned their hopes on the leadership of President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, as the first global champion on DRR as well as
cochair of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015
Development Agenda, to ensure the inclusion of DRR into the post-2015
development framework.
However, in the highly political process
that involves the entire United Nations member states’ agendas and
vested interests, such as the post-2015, relying on the evidence-based
urgency of DRR and resilience and the democratic process of the
post-2015 will not suffice.
Similarly, it is not enough to place
the responsibility on the shoulders of Yudhoyono alone. Stronger
campaigning is required and more effective strategy at all levels, the
global, regional and national, is critically important to mobilize
further political support for the inclusion of DRR and resilience into
the post-2015 development agenda.
An informal discussion was
organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) for the
member states of the United Nations in New York last month.
At
the discussion, the head of Climate Change at the Overseas Development
Institute, Tom Mitchell, proposed to member states to calibrate targets
for DRR and resilience in the post-2015 framework while balancing
prudence and ambition as part of the strategy to mainstream DRR and
resilience into the post-2015 development agenda.
Mitchell
further proposed four options of goals for DRR and resilience should the
post-2015 process agree to make DRR and/or resilience a standalone
goal. Those options are: (a) to reduce risk and build resilience to
disasters for all; (b) disaster-resilient nations; (c)
disaster-resilient communities; or (d) resilience to shocks and
stresses.
Formulating a set of universal goals for the post-2015
development agenda, including a universal goal for DRR and resilience
is comprehensible due to the need for drawing support from all nations
on the set goal(s).
However, it is important to take into
consideration the special needs of individual countries as well as the
different starting level each country has due to the different capacity
and resources they have with regard to DRR and resilience.
The
frequency and intensity of natural disasters that are faced by each
country and the impact they entail vis-à-vis the population of the
country are also factors of equal importance.
Learning from the
shortcoming of the MDGs, what should also be addressed in the coming
post-2015 DRR and resilience framework is the “how” aspect. The MDGs
left out this very important aspect of achieving its goals as there is
no clear and direct framework to guide, support and assist countries,
especially the developing and least developed ones, in achieving the
MDGs.
In this regard, the coming post-2015 DRR and resilience
framework should also put into context the goal of partnership that can
contribute to the strengthening of the capacity of DRR and resilience
not only at the national level but also at the local/ sub-national
level.
The writer is an Indonesian diplomat in New York. The views expressed are her own.
