Editors’ introduction
At the time of the EASSW/AIDOSS conference in Milan in June 2015, Margareta Wahlstrom held the position of Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction/Assistant Secretary-General of United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). Ms Wahlstrom has publicly acknowledged the role of social work in building disaster resilience and assisting with disaster recovery. Her aim in addressing the conference ‘Social work education in Europe: towards 2025’ was to convince the audience of the importance of including and expanding the knowledge and skills contained in the broad framework of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the curriculum of every school of social work as a matter of urgency. Ms Wahlstrom’s presentation was essentially political and educational for the social work community; her aim was to try to convince social workers and social work educators in particular, of the importance of building knowledge and skills in the arena of DRR, whilst bringing the humanitarian values that underpin the profession to bear on this essential work. Building resilience in individuals, communities, regions and nations underpins the work of DRR. The synergies with the core roles of social work are clear. Ms Wahlstrom’s hope is that we can assist in making those links explicit to our students and our community.
By way of introduction to the presentation given by Margareta Wahlstrom, there follows some general background to the history and important work of the UNISDR, adapted from the official UN website (https://www.unisdr.org/who-we-are).
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in December 1999 and established UNISDR, the secretariat to ensure its implementation. Its mandate was expanded in 2001 to serve as the focal point in the United Nations system to ensure coordination and synergies among DRR activities of the United Nations system and regional organizations and activities in socio-economic and humanitarian fields (GA resolution 56/195).
UNISDR’s core areas of work includes ensuring DRR is applied to climate change adaptation, increasing investments for DRR, building disaster-resilient cities, schools and hospitals and strengthening the international system for DRR. UNISDR leads the preparation and follow-up of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction established in 2006 (GA resolution 61/198). The Global Platform has become the main global forum for DRR and for the provision of strategic and coherent guidance for the implementation of the Sendai Framework and to share experience among stakeholders. Other areas of work for UNISDR includes issuing the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction every two years, supporting countries in monitoring risk trends and the implementation of the Sendai Framework and leading global campaigns on DRR for safer schools, safer hospitals and safer cities.
UNISDR is led by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction (SRSG/Assistant Secretary-General). UNISDR has over 100 staff located in its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and 5 regional offices and other field presences.
Social workers have made, and continue to make, important contributions to DRR practice. Social work and DRR policy share common ground. Traditionally, and through their daily work, social workers are engaged in disaster risk management, whether directly or indirectly, focusing on stress and trauma counselling, interventions in public health systems, hospitals, schools and social welfare systems.
The term ‘natural disaster’ remains common currency. But it is a misnomer. Hazards such as storms or earthquakes are inevitable natural phenomena, and emergency requirements go hand in hand with them. There is nothing natural about a disaster itself, however. It is the product of risk, which is in turn rooted in a combination of factors, ranging from human behaviour and vulnerability, for example, to bad policy decisions and environmental degradation.
The impact of that risk is stark. Between 2005 and 2014, disasters killed 700,000 people, affected 1.7 billion and caused US$1.4 trillion in economic damage. In an interconnected world, a disaster’s impact can all too easily be felt far from its epicentre, for example, by disrupting global supply chains or the flow of remittances from migrants.
The goal of DRR is to enable all communities to become resilient to the effects of natural, technological and environmental hazards, reducing the compound risks these hazards pose on top of social and economic vulnerabilities within societies. We seek to proceed from protection against hazards to the management of risk through the integration of risk prevention into sustainable development.
To achieve this, governments and all parts of society need to establish policy and take practical actions to prevent new disaster risks from accumulating and to reduce existing disaster risk through implementation of integrated measures. Such measures fall in many different areas, including economic, social, health, cultural, educational and environmental measures. Their common aim is to prevent and reduce hazard exposure and vulnerability to disaster, and thus strengthen resilience.
A new global policy framework
Like the social work profession, the new Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is people-centred. Just as social work is about empowerment, so individuals and the communities of which they are part should be key players when it comes to heading off the impacts of hazards. In addition, our respective fields have undergone major changes in recent decades.
Adopted in March 2015 at the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, hosted by Japan, the Sendai Framework is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement with a wide scope. It aims to achieve a substantial reduction in disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries.
The Sendai Framework recognizes that while the state has the primary role to reduce disaster risk, responsibilities should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It goes beyond natural hazards, mapping out a broad approach to DRR that applies to small- and large-scale disasters caused by natural or man-made hazards as well as related environmental, technological and biological hazards and risks.
The Sendai Framework also calls for a broader and more active role of the science and research sector – and within that, social sciences and social work education – in areas such as understanding risk and stimulating behaviour that aims to protect people and communities rather than increase exposure to hazards and risk, as well as the medium and long-term impact of disasters on people and their life situations.
Among the key questions is how public health and education systems, of which social work is part and parcel, can contribute in a positive and sustained manner to reducing future risk and loss. The health status of disaster-exposed populations is central to the achievement of the overall goal of the Sendai Framework of achieving a substantial reduction of both disaster risk and actual losses in lives, livelihoods and health.
Urban communities, an important area for the social work profession, are a cornerstone of DRR. Disaster risk is increasingly concentrated in hazard-exposed cities, emphasizing the importance of initiatives such as the UNISDR Making Cities Resilient campaign, which involves more than 3000 local governments and communities.
Decades of effort
The Sendai Framework is the result of a process that began in the 1970s: a gradual shift from a culture of reaction after disaster strikes to a culture of prevention. Pre-emptive action is more humane, and a moral imperative, just like reducing the risks of war. It also makes far more sense to protect societies and economies in the first place, rather than having to rebuild repeatedly. Risk reduction also decreases the need to pay huge costs – not only financial and economic, but also social and political – after a disaster.
In 1989, the UN General Assembly launched the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction – the term ‘natural disaster’ was still widely used in our sector in that era. The ensuing 10 years saw the process gain momentum, thanks to the creation of the first worldwide agreement in our field, the 1994 Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World.
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction was set up in 1999 – our formal name, UNISDR, is a reminder that we are the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, adopted that year. We are the focal point for the coordination of disaster reduction and for ensuring synergies among the disaster reduction activities of the UN system and regional organizations and activities in socio-economic and humanitarian fields. Further mandates are to promote public awareness and commitment, expand networks and partnerships and improve knowledge of disaster causes and options for risk reduction.
The next major step came just weeks after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, which underlined the devastating consequences of huge gaps in preparedness and risk knowledge. In January 2005, governments adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action, a 10-year plan to explain, describe and detail the work required from different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses. That framework was developed and agreed on with the many partners needed to reduce disaster risk – governments, international agencies, disaster experts and a host of others – bringing them into a common system of coordination.
The Hyogo Framework outlined five priorities for action: ensuring that DRR became a national and a local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation; identifying, assessing and monitoring disaster risks and enhancing early warning; using knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels; reducing the underlying risk factors and strengthening disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.
The Hyogo Framework played a leading role in placing the issue of risk on the international, regional and national agenda, generating tangible progress. But that progress was uneven. The greatest advances were seen in areas of DRR including institutional improvements, passing national legislation, setting up early warning systems and strengthening disaster preparedness and response.
But Hyogo Framework stock-tacking flagged a number of concerns: a lack of systematic multi-hazard risk assessments and early warning systems that factor in social and economic vulnerabilities; the inadequate integration of DRR into planning of sustainable development policies at national and international levels and insufficient local-level of implementation of the Hyogo Framework.
There were also difficulties in increasing resilience to hazards, especially of the most vulnerable segments of the society. Compartmentalization of actions according to the framework’s five priorities was also a challenge.
To boost local-level implementation, it became clear that there was a need for actions such as decentralizing authority, empowering local communities, including at the grassroots level; creating social demand for DRR so that individuals realize their own share of responsibility in increasing their resilience and holding governments accountable for the development and implementation of coherent DRR plans and investments.
Given the need to craft a successor to the Hyogo Framework, a series of stakeholder consultations initiated in March 2012 and inter-governmental negotiations held from July 2014 to March 2015 were supported by the UNISDR upon the request of the UN General Assembly.
Clear targets
The Sendai Framework, which in its current form runs until 2030, has shifted the focus even more squarely to risk. It sets out seven clear global targets: substantial reductions in (1) disaster mortality, (2) number of affected people, (3) direct economic losses and (4) reducing damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services. The Sendai Framework also seeks a substantial increase in (5) national and local DRR strategies by 2020, (6) enhanced cooperation to developing countries and (7) a substantial increase in multi-hazard early warning systems, disaster risk information and assessments.
To meet those targets, the framework has four Priorities for Action, as follows:
Priority 1. Understanding disaster risk: Disaster risk management should be based on an understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment. Such knowledge can be used for risk assessment, prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response.
Priority 2. Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk: Disaster risk governance at the national, regional and global levels is very important for prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and rehabilitation. It fosters collaboration and partnership.
Priority 3. Investing in DRR for resilience: Public and private investment in disaster risk prevention and reduction through structural and non-structural measures are essential to enhance the economic, social, health and cultural resilience of persons, communities, countries and their assets, as well as the environment.
Priority 4. Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to ‘Build Back Better’ in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction: The growth of disaster risk means there is a need to strengthen disaster preparedness for response, take action in anticipation of events and ensure capacities are in place for effective response and recovery at all levels. The recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phase is a critical opportunity to build back better, including through integrating DRR into development measures.
It also became clear over the course of the Hyogo Framework that more needed to be done to integrate DRR with other international processes to enhance the resilience of communities. As a result, the linkages are substantial between the Sendai Framework, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development adopted in July 2015, and the Sustainable Development Goals, approved at a summit of world leaders in September 2015. The Sendai Framework also dovetails with global efforts to curb climate change and mitigate its impacts.
Critical to achieving the ambitious vision of both Sendai and the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 will be the full engagement of social and behavioural sciences. A cornerstone will be the hands-on contribution of social workers to help turn that vision into practice, one that builds resilience of individuals and communities – the foundations of nations.
Links
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
http://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/sendai-framework
Reading the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/46694
Making Cities Resilient campaign
http://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/
Information about UNISDR