This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
‘When it comes to reducing the loss of livelihoods, we are not making enough progress, and I think that needs to be pursued with great sense of urgency,’ says Kamal Kishore, head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
MANILA, Philippines – The world is “not making enough progress” in reducing the loss of livelihoods during disasters, a United Nations official said on Monday, October 14, as the Philippines began its hosting of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR).
“In the first 10 years of the Sendai Framework, we have made progress largely in the area of reducing the loss of lives. Across the world, the loss of lives from disasters is coming down. We would like it to come down even more sharply,” Kamal Kishore, head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), said on Monday.
“But when it comes to reducing the loss of livelihoods, we are not making enough progress, and I think that needs to be pursued with great sense of urgency,” added Kishore, who is also the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for disaster risk reduction.
He joined Philippine Environment Secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro on the first day of the APMCDRR, the main platform in the region to monitor and review progress on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Adopted by UN member states in 2015, the Sendai Framework is the “only globally agreed blueprint for how countries can address and reduce disaster risks and losses,” according to the UNDRR.
Teodoro said that when it comes to livelihoods, the challenge during disasters is rebuilding capital goods for the continuation of jobs.
“A lot of jobs are due to private sector investments, so it’s also private sector resilience that we would need to take into account,” he said in a separate interview.
Asia Pacific is the most disaster-prone region in the world. According to a 2023 UN report, in 2022 alone, over 140 disasters struck the region, leading to over 7,500 deaths, over 64 million affected people, and $57 billion in economic damage.
Road to 2030
With just six years left to achieve the targets of the Sendai Framework, Loyzaga was asked if the Philippines would push for a review of how the goals are measured and push developed countries to pull finances together to help developing countries meet these goals.
The environment secretary said they are currently looking at the Philippines’ international commitments (UNFCCC, UNCBD, SGDs) and the Philippine Development Plan “and see how these all intersect.”
For example, she mentioned beginning work on a “convergence budgeting system,” where the government looks at how funds from different agencies are being spent “to see how these will all have a net impact” on the country’s resilience.
“We are, internally, actually taking this really hard look at how we can move forward in the convergence budgeting as well as in our policies and actions and programs in order to reach these specific goals,” Loyzaga said.
But Loyzaga said the Philippines acknowledges that globally, there is a “big gap between where we are at the moment and where we would like to be in 2030.”
Still, the country is in a unique position in the region to bridge the Pacific Islands with Southeast Asia in terms of regional cooperation in disaster risk reduction (DRR), according to Teodoro.
What to expect
The Philippines is hosting the APMCDRR from October 14 to 18 at the Philippine International Convention Center.
Kishore said the regional conference will focus on three things: practical solutions to enhance financing for disaster risk reduction; making sure DRR efforts leave no one behind; and localization of DRR.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected to attend the APMCDRR opening ceremony on Tuesday, October 15. – Rappler.com
