The UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, and HE Yoichi Otabe, the Japanese Ambassador to the International Organizations in Geneva, announced today the start of consultations on a new international blueprint for reducing disaster losses in advance of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction which the Japanese government is proposing to host in 2015.
The new framework for disaster risk reduction will build on the success of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities in spreading a culture of disaster prevention around the globe. The Hyogo Framework was agreed at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture in January 2005 on the tenth anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, and a month after the Asian tsunami.
Ms. Wahlström said: "As we look to the anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, the start of consultations on the post-HFA framework is a suitable occasion on which to acknowledge the debt that the world owes to Japan when it comes to sharing its vast experience and knowledge of disaster risk reduction and preparedness.
"The learning from the Great East Japan Earthquake will be a vital contribution to preparing the world to meet the challenges of disaster risk in the urbanized, globalized world of the 21st century where a natural hazard can trigger a chain of catastrophic events impacting lives and livelihoods in tragic ways unless we are realistic in our assessment of risk and act accordingly."
Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23330
Showing posts with label disaster risk reduction agency india. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disaster risk reduction agency india. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Towards a Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 Building the Resilience of Nations and
Communities to Disasters (HFA) is the inspiration for knowledge, practice,
implementation, experience and the science for disaster risk reduction. As we head toward
the end date of the current HFA it is important to outline an approach and shape the
discussions on a continuation to be considered at the World Conference on Disaster
Reduction in 2015
Read the detailed framework at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23248
Communities to Disasters (HFA) is the inspiration for knowledge, practice,
implementation, experience and the science for disaster risk reduction. As we head toward
the end date of the current HFA it is important to outline an approach and shape the
discussions on a continuation to be considered at the World Conference on Disaster
Reduction in 2015
Read the detailed framework at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23248
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Why it's so much harder for a Bangladeshi woman to escape a cyclone
Bagerhat, Bangladesh, August 2011. Picture provided by the British Red Cross
By Katie Nguyen
When Cyclone Sidr battered Bangladesh in 2007, hundreds of women and children died.
Not because they didn't know there was a big storm coming, but simply because the men weren't home to give them permission to leave the house and seek safety elsewhere. Paralysed by the shame of being seen alone in public, many women could not save themselves. It seems almost too tragic to contemplate.
Since then, however, the Bangladesh Red Crescent and British Red Cross have been working with the country's coastal communities to encourage women's needs to be taken into greater account.
Through a project to boost disaster preparedness, they have enlisted influential religious and community leaders to help dispel, for example, the stigma around women being unaccompanied by male members of their families.
They have also provided women with training on how to respond to cyclones - smoothing the way with the men first - and recruited female volunteers to spread the word.
"The coastal areas are very poor and the communities don't have much access to information. The women don't know their own rights even," project leader Ali Asgar told me.
"Literacy is very poor. In the coastal areas it is probably less than 35 percent," he noted.
Simple, life-saving tips are passed on to other women. For example, they are told to change out of their long saris into baggy trousers to make escaping from a cyclone easier.
They are taught to bury documents, money, dried food and drinking water in a bucket attached with a rope to an empty plastic bottle. This gives them a head start in resuming their lives once the cyclone passes, the Red Cross says.
The women also have a chance to voice their concerns.
At one women’s forum, some women complained that a lack of electricity in cyclone-resilient shelters made them feel unsafe, so solar panels were installed, Asgar said.
There have also been efforts to observe purdah - the strict separation of men and women - in cyclone shelters.
"We have worked with the most vulnerable groups - particularly pregnant women and children. Women are very vulnerable for a number of reasons, including their long, traditional dress and long hair," said Nazma, a housewife who helps circulate information about cyclones and how to prepare for disasters.
"Also, women will not go outside even when they receive information that a cyclone is coming unless their husband tells them to, and women can't swim because they have not been allowed to learn," the Red Cross quoted her as saying.
Read in detail at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23012
By Katie Nguyen
When Cyclone Sidr battered Bangladesh in 2007, hundreds of women and children died.
Not because they didn't know there was a big storm coming, but simply because the men weren't home to give them permission to leave the house and seek safety elsewhere. Paralysed by the shame of being seen alone in public, many women could not save themselves. It seems almost too tragic to contemplate.
Since then, however, the Bangladesh Red Crescent and British Red Cross have been working with the country's coastal communities to encourage women's needs to be taken into greater account.
Through a project to boost disaster preparedness, they have enlisted influential religious and community leaders to help dispel, for example, the stigma around women being unaccompanied by male members of their families.
They have also provided women with training on how to respond to cyclones - smoothing the way with the men first - and recruited female volunteers to spread the word.
"The coastal areas are very poor and the communities don't have much access to information. The women don't know their own rights even," project leader Ali Asgar told me.
"Literacy is very poor. In the coastal areas it is probably less than 35 percent," he noted.
Simple, life-saving tips are passed on to other women. For example, they are told to change out of their long saris into baggy trousers to make escaping from a cyclone easier.
They are taught to bury documents, money, dried food and drinking water in a bucket attached with a rope to an empty plastic bottle. This gives them a head start in resuming their lives once the cyclone passes, the Red Cross says.
The women also have a chance to voice their concerns.
At one women’s forum, some women complained that a lack of electricity in cyclone-resilient shelters made them feel unsafe, so solar panels were installed, Asgar said.
There have also been efforts to observe purdah - the strict separation of men and women - in cyclone shelters.
"We have worked with the most vulnerable groups - particularly pregnant women and children. Women are very vulnerable for a number of reasons, including their long, traditional dress and long hair," said Nazma, a housewife who helps circulate information about cyclones and how to prepare for disasters.
"Also, women will not go outside even when they receive information that a cyclone is coming unless their husband tells them to, and women can't swim because they have not been allowed to learn," the Red Cross quoted her as saying.
Read in detail at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Saving the Forests with Indigenous Knowledge
By Isaiah Esipisu*
DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9, 2011 (IPS) - For the Laibon community, a sub-tribe of Kenya’s Maasai ethnic group, the 33,000-hectare Loita Forest in the country’s Rift Valley Province is more than just a forest. It is a shrine.
"It is our shrine. Our Gods live there. We gather herbs from the place. We use it for bee- keeping. It therefore forms part of our livelihood," said Olonana Ole Pulei, who is in Durban, South Africa, to represent his community at the ongoing 17th Conference of Parties under theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
According to Nigel Crawhall, the Director of Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), different African communities have incredible indigenous knowledge that they use in the conservation of forests and biodiversity in general, and this should be recognised during the negotiations in Durban.
"Different communities have different practices that they use in forestry conservation," he said.
Crawhall gave an example of how the Bambuti and Batwa pygmy communities, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, conserved the forest using traditional methods. Both communities depend on the biodiversity of animal life in the equatorial forests in order to survive.
"Usually, they know how to identify particular trees that can be cut down in order to create a unique opening on the canopy, which attracts light in the closely-packed Congo forests. The light then attracts animals, birds and insects, thus giving them an opportunity to hunt," Crawhall told IPS.
This helps conserve the biodiversity, as well as the forests because this method can only work if the forest canopy is intact.
In Kenya, the Maasai culture forbids any community member from cutting down a tree, either for firewood or any other purpose. People are also forbidden from interfering with the taproots or removing the entire bark of a tree for herbal extraction.
According to their cultural belief, one can only use tree branches for firewood, and fibrous roots for herbs. If the bark of a tree has medicinal value, then only small portions of it can be removed by creating a "V" in the bark. The wound is then sealed using wet soil.
"We believe that the soil helps in healing the wound on a tree. This is cultural, and we all believe that it is an abomination for one to injure a tree, and not help it heal," said Ole Pulei.
It is a practice that has been passed down from generation to generation among Maasai community members. Among the Laibon community, it is this indigenous knowledge that has aided in the conservation of the Loita Forest.
"All logging activities observed on Maasai land, including the destruction of the Mau Forest, are done by foreigners because the Maasai culture does not allow such activities. This is the indigenous knowledge that helps in forest conservation," Ole Pulei told IPS.
Such beliefs make the forests part of the community, where community members have feelings for the trees, and where cutting down a tree could amount to an offence against the Gods and their culture.
"We have several other communities all over the continent who co-exist with forests. They include the Tuareg community in Algeria, Yiaku community in Kenya’s Laikipia region, the Ogiekcommunity also in Kenya, the Kung community in Botswana among others," said Crawhall.
Though according to Crawhall, all Africans are indigenous although there are some groups who live by hunting and gathering, while other groups practice pastoralism, and others practice dry-land farming.
Despite the fact that there is no standard definition of indigenous people, the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognises that particular communities, due to historical and environmental circumstances, have found themselves outside the state system and underrepresented in governance.
"The Bushmen of the Southern African region, or the Ogiek community in Kenya who live in forests are a typical example of groupings categorised as indigenous," said Crawhall.
He points out that Africa has more than 40 groupings in different countries that survive entirely on hunting and gathering. However, IPACC works closely with 155 communities from 22 African countries who are recognised as indigenous because of their historical and environmental circumstances.
As a result, representatives from these communities have joined the rest of the world in Durban to have their voices heard, so that their contributions to forest conservation are recognised as part of the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
"We believe that African traditional ecological knowledge is the foundation for appropriate and effective national adaptation policies," said Crawhall.
Through the IPACC secretariat, the 155 community-based organisations in Africa have drafted their position for the Durban negotiation platform. They want the negotiators to come up with a position that is representative to African parties, indigenous African people’s organisations, traditional institutions, traditional authorities and value systems.
They are calling for the formation of a regional body that is legally binding under the United Nations, to handle issues on conservation that are difficult to deal with at national level.
"One of the prevailing gaps in most of the IPACC-member countries is that there is no land tenure for communities who live in forests, or depend on forests," said Crawhall.
However, different countries have started responding to the needs of their local communities by including them in their national climate change adaptation strategies, with Kenya taking the lead.
The country is in the process of drafting the Climate Change Adaptation Bill. And the indigenous communities will have their say on the bill because according to the constitution, they must be consulted on draft legislation so that they can make contributions.
"We have traversed the entire country seeking views on this bill, where local communities have been able to give their contributions. Our vision is to participate and lead in the development and implementation of climate change sensitive policies, projects and activities within and outside our Kenyan borders," said John Kioli, the chairman for the Kenya Climate Change Working Group, who is attending the Durban climate change negotiations.
* This article is one of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.
(END)
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
"Encouraging progress", NEW!
Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme talks about Nepal's progress in meeting MDGs and the challenges ahead.
Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme talks about Nepal's progress in meeting MDGs and the challenges ahead.
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Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and former prime minister of New Zealand is in Nepal this week to inspect development projects. Clark spoke to Nepali Times about Nepal's progress in meeting Millennium Development Goals and the challenges ahead.
Nepali Times: With only four years to go for the MDG target date, how would you rate the chances of developing countries to meet the goals?
Helen Clark: Over the past decade, notable progress has been made on each individual MDG, including in many least developed countries and under very challenging circumstances. Business as usual, however, won't get the world all the way to achieve the MDG targets. The right mix of policies, targeted technical assistance, institutional capacity, adequate funding, and strong political commitment are necessary to accelerate progress. UNDP supports country-led development based on inclusive growth strategies which benefit the poorest and most vulnerable.
And how does Nepal's performance compare with the others?
Despite political and economic challenges, Nepal has made MDG progress over the past decade. According to the 2010 MDG progress report, Nepal is on track to achieve most targets, with a few exceptions, if the current trends in progress continue. Achievements in reducing child mortality and improving maternal health are particularly encouraging. Poverty has gone down significantly, and Nepal is close to reaching the 2015 MDG poverty target. Nepal has already achieved gender parity in primary school enrollments, but the gender gap remains high at secondary and tertiary education levels. As a former political leader in my own country, I am particularly happy to note that one-third of the seats in the Constituent Assembly are now held by women. Nepal has had the foresight to integrate the MDGs into its national development strategies, as reflected in its Three Year Plan, and I have confidence that Nepal will continue its MDG progress.
A lot of the problems in the developing world need long-term structural and governance solutions, but aren't the needs are so immediate.
Development is a long term process. UNDP works for decades in countries and helps them build the capacity to lift human development. Some face greater challenges than others, but all can succeed. It is important to align meeting short term needs with the longer term direction established, in other words, each step taken should be in support of the goals to be achieved over time.
UN staff were among the thousands who died in the Haiti earthquake last year. What lessons has the UN learnt about disaster preparedness and response from that event?
Haiti was a tragic reminder of the importance of building resilience to disaster. Disaster risk reduction measures, ensuring that humanitarian response systems are ready, and imagining the unimaginable all need to be undertaken. Effective governance is needed to achieve this, of the kind which ensures building codes are in place and enforced, land use plans are carefully thought through, and creates a clear sense of duty of care among elected and appointed public officials. International support is needed for both the humanitarian and development aspects of this work.
Any particular effect this has had in helping Nepal prepare for a disaster that one day is sure to come?
Given the high earthquake risk and other hazards in Nepal, UNDP has been working with the government on disaster risk reduction for many years. A recent result of that work was the establishment with the Home Ministry of a National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC). We already see concrete results: when an earthquake struck the east of Nepal recently, the national and district level emergency operation centres reacted within one hour. That was a huge improvement compared to the level of preparedness only one year ago. UNDP and a range of partners also helped the government develop a new National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management which was approved in 2009. It signals an important shift in policy from focusing mainly on relief and response to a more balanced approach to risk reduction overall. The key challenge now is to implement this ambitious new strategy with a sense of urgency
A Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium came into being in 2009 under government leadership, bringing together the UN system, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the Red Cross Movement, the European Commission, and the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia, to accelerate and expand risk reduction measures in Nepal. The Consortium has already raised more than $60 million for school and hospital retrofitting, emergency preparedness, building code enforcement, community preparedness, and many other measures. The Consortium is seen as a model of how to get organised to tackle disaster risk more effectively in countries like Nepal.
And, finally, impressions of your visit to Nepal this week?
We were very proud to have with us Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, who is the UNDP Goodwill Ambassador with us on our trip to Nepal this week. We have very vivid impressions of our visit here. It is an imposing landscape, and a challenge in development. We met the highest leaders in Kathmandu to women starting their own micro businesses in a village in western Nepal. It was very inspiring to see how much they could do with so little, and how giving young people skills can better the livelihoods of their families. In our visit to a maternity clinic we saw the role played by Nepal's female health volunteers and what was most significant to me was that that it was an example of a community that could articulate what they wanted from local leaders, and they said they wanted better maternity clinics. Back in Kathmandu we had two very significant meetings on Weaddnesday, one with CA members and a meeting with senior political leaders at the Prime minister's residence. It is enormously significant that they take the job of speedily completing the peace and constitution process seriously.
Read in detail at :- http://cdrn.org.in/index.asp
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
FedEx Express Delivers Relief Supplies to Sikkim Earthquake Victims
FedEx Express Delivers Relief Supplies to Sikkim Earthquake Victims
November 9, 2011 by admin
Filed under News Bites
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp, has delivered 1,000 shelter tool kits to earthquake victims in Sikkim. The initiative to offer shelter relief to affected families was organised in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS).
FedEx Express transported the aid weighing approximately 25,000 pounds from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Delhi, India using the A310 aircraft. The kits were delivered to the IRCS representatives in Sikkim by a special ground delivery.
The relief aid of 1,000 shelter toolkits included tools and hardware that will enable victims and aid workers to help repair and reconstruct damaged and destroyed homes. The shelter kits were provided to the IRCS by the IFRC, and funded by the international organization’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF).
“The damage caused by the September earthquake in the Himalayan region necessitated an immediate humanitarian response. FedEx is honored to offer its humble support to victims of Sikkim. By delivering the shelter tool kits to affected families in the region, we stand in solidarity with our trusted partners, India Red Cross Society and the IFRC, as they honorably assist the community’s reconstruction process,” said Kenneth F. Koval, vice president, Operations, FedEx Express India.
“The earthquake in the Himalayan region has damaged and destroyed homes across four countries creating an emergency situation in hard-to-access regions,” said John Roche, Head of the IFRC’s India office. “Thanks to the assistance of FedEx, these shelter tool kits will help many who have been left homeless in Sikkim rebuild their lives.”
“The families in Sikkim needed urgent assistance in a difficult situation and FedEx is glad that we can leverage our infrastructure and network to provide them speedy access to these much-needed relief supplies,” said Ramesh Kumar Singam, managing director, Federal Express Malaysia and Brunei.
FedEx Express maintains a longstanding commitment to disaster relief. The company donated more than five million pounds (approximately 2,300 tons) of charitable shipping last year alone, equivalent to 87 Boeing 757 aircraft of donated aid.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Pledge to safety promising to act wisely in the event of a disaster
Pledge to safety
We promise: To be careful and act wisely. Photo: Meedhu Miriyam Joseph
The students of Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Thiruvananthapuram, learnt a few tips on how to cope in the event of a natural disaster.
As they took the pledge together, promising to act wisely and carefully in the event of a disaster and abide by the instructions given to them by the concerned authorities, the kids seemed to send a message to everyone to be prepared because a disaster can strike us unexpectedly.
The students of Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Cotton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram, took the pledge in connection with the International Day for Disaster Reduction observed on October 13.
They also participated in the earthquake mock drill session, which would help them understand the basic safety measures to be taken in the event of a natural disaster.
This year, the State-level observance of the day took place within the framework of the campaign — “Step up for Disaster Risk Reduction” with the theme, “Making Children and Young People Partners for Disaster Risk Reduction”.
Mock drills
Ashna Shajim, a Std VI student, was one among those who attended the earthquake mock drill session at the school. She reluctantly bends her knees, places her hands on head protectively and explains, “If an earthquake hits this school I would drop, hold and cover my head like this so that I can protect my brain”.
She sure seems to know the basic safety measures to be taken in the event of an earthquake.
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