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INTRODUCTION

In 2015, the Member States of the United Nations agreed on an encompassing and coherent 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the New Urban Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, and the Agenda for Humanity are all in coherence with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These agreements consider elements of disaster risk reduction and resilience in their scope. Though each agreement frames disaster risk and resilience from different perspectives, there is a common understanding that disaster risk management is one of the prerequisites to building resilience, which in turn is imperative to achieving sustainable development. Reinforcing the point, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that disaster risk reduction must be at the core of sustainable development strategies and economic policies if countries are to fulfil the commitment in the 2030 Agenda and ensure that no one is left behind.

The Sendai Framework calls for strong political leadership, commitment, and involvement of all stakeholders at all levels (local, national, regional and global) in order to achieve substantial reductions in disaster risk and losses and strengthen resilience to natural and man-made hazards. The Sendai Framework recognizes the primary role of states and the shared responsibility of local governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, and others to achieve its goal to “prevent new and reduce existing disaster risk through the implementation of integrated and inclusive economic, structural, legal, social, health, cultural, educational, environmental, technological, political and institutional measures that prevent and reduce hazard exposure and vulnerability to disaster, increase preparedness for response and recovery, and thus strengthen resilience”. It reinforces the shift from managing disasters to managing disaster risk and building resilience as a shared vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The relevance of disaster risk reduction to the post-2015 development agreements and the links between them create an opportunity to build international coherence and foster risk-informed policy and decision-making, to promote multi-hazard and cross-sectoral approaches to assessing risk, and to encourage a deeper understanding of social and environmental vulnerability across sectors and levels of government.National and local disaster risk reduction strategies are essential for implementing and monitoring a country’s risk reduction priorities by setting implementation milestones, establishing key roles and responsibilities of government and nongovernment actors, and identifying technical and financial resources. In order to implement the priorities they are set out to achieve, they need to be supported by a well-coordinated institutional architecture, legislative mandates, political buyin of decision makers, and human and financial capacities at all levels of society.

The development of national and local disaster risk reduction strategies and plans by 2020 is a dedicated target of the Sendai Framework: Target E calls to “substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies”. The short deadline for Sendai Framework-aligned strategies and plans was set in recognition of their importance as enablers to reduce disaster risk and loss.

A strategic and inclusive whole-of-society approach is needed to ensure that all core actors active in DRR are mobilized and engaged in support of riskinformed policy, legal and technical measure and appropriate resource allocation towards:

• Preventing the creation of new disaster risk, i.e. addressing disaster risks that may develop in the future if disaster risk reduction policies are not put in place, including measures to ensure that all new investments are disaster and climate risk-sensitive, and measures to reduce inequality, which is often the cause of communities creating risk through informal settlements, informal economic activities, etc.;

• Reducing existing disaster risk through structural or non-structural measures, such as retrofitting of critical infrastructure, mitigation works, green infrastructure, or the relocation of exposed population or assets;

• Strengthening economic, social, health, and environmental resilience of individuals and societies in the face of anticipated residual risk. These include preparedness, response and recovery activities, but also a mix of different financing instruments, such as national contingency funds, contingent credit, insurance, reinsurance and social safety nets.

In some countries disaster risk management may be included in other multi-stakeholder processes, such as sustainable development or climate adaptation strategic planning. However, in other country contexts standalone DRR strategies and plans are needed because their objectives are not automatically addressed through the national development or sectoral policy framework.
Considering that each country will have different needs, the process of developing a national and local disaster risk reduction strategy will be customized according to the country context and should be undertaken in close collaboration with domestic and international stakeholders, such as international and regional organizations, civil society organizations, technical institutions, academia and the private sector.