Disaster risk-reduction plan: speakers for effective implementation

Speakers on Tuesday while stressing the need for effective implementation on disaster risk reduction (DRR) plan and better state of preparedness to save lives and livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people across Pakistan from natural and manmade calamities, have urged the authorities to make DRR a part of the sectoral development policy.
Speaking at an event titled 'National Consultation Meeting on Post-Adoption of Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR)' jointly organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), they called for mainstreaming of DRR into the sectoral development policy.
In line with international commitments and frameworks including Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), the policies at national level should incorporate local situations while catering to the needs of the people facing different kinds of risks of hazards and disasters.
The meeting was aimed at having appropriate recommendations from various DRR/ national disaster risk management (NDRM) actors and stakeholders on the future actions and activities towards achieving the SFDRR objective, which is linked with the NDRM and national disaster risk reduction policy.
While discussing various legal dimensions of Sendai framework, the speakers highlighted that the framework provides guidelines to set up roles, tasks and mandates for the relevant authorities as well as for establishing and/or enhance mechanisms for assessment and monitoring of the implementation of SFDRR at a later stage.
They also called for preventing new and reducing existing disaster risks through implementation of integrated and inclusive economic, structural, legal, social, healthcare, cultural, educational, environmental, technological, political and institutional measures that prevent and reduce exposure to hazards and vulnerability to disasters, and increase preparedness for response and recovery and thus strengthening resilience.
Chairman NDMA Major General Asghar Nawaz said Pakistan has achieved a number of milestones towards building resilience of the vulnerable communities, but there has been a shift from response to preparedness with setting aside disaster risk finance and risk insurance plans. He said that Pakistan has strong disaster management architecture with appropriate laws, policies and plans including the contingency plans, but despite major achievements, the country still faces some challenges owing to its vulnerability to diverse nature of climate risks and hazards.
He further said that the government is working on investing in terms of preparedness for provision of enabling environment for dealing with disasters effectively. "We have a national disaster management plan, which is being aligned with the objectives and targets of SFDRR," he added.
Member (DRR) NDMA Ahmad Kamal said that Pakistan needs to evaluate its disaster risk management systems in line with the guidelines available in international frameworks including SFDRR. He said Pakistan at one hand faces phenomenon of climate change induced disasters such as flash floods while on the other, extreme draught situation and thus, has to deal with these vulnerabilities with holistic approach.
UNDP Country Director Ignacio Artaza said the consultative process is useful and UNDP would keep supporting such endeavours in future as well. "We would like to work closely with our local partners to make Pakistan more resilient country in the face of disasters," he added.
Chief Crisis Prevention and Recovery Unit, UNDP, Aadil Mansoor said that Pakistan's DRR policy provides guideline on preparedness of communities against disasters. He said that UNDP supports both national and provincial governments in their efforts for community based disaster risk management (CBDRM). Pakistan has developed good models and practices on disaster management and has extended its support to other countries including Nepal, enabling them to deal with the disasters.
Executive Director SDPI Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri was of the view that disaster risk reduction plans would yield better results if they are made inclusive ensuring participation of all stakeholders. He said the measures on disaster risk reduction should be broadened and the effects of manmade crisis including victims of terror acts should also be supported under such efforts.
Policy expert on DRR Dr Salman Hamayun said that Pakistan is responding reasonably to the relevant international frameworks. He said that bringing policies into practice is now the major challenge for Pakistan and it must be done while keeping in view the local considerations and needs.
DRM specialist (UNDP) Dr Muhi Usamah presented SFDRR as well as the difference and similarities with Hyogo Framework for action. In his presentation, he further emphasised that more than 80 per cent of the contents of Pakistan national policies are of relevance of SFDRR. The challenge lies on the collaboration of all active stakeholders in Pakistan and the NDMA as national co-ordinating body. One of the first steps in implementing SFDRR is translating the global agenda to Pakistan context, which shall be further refined at provincial, district and if necessary at UC level.