Statement by the Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends For Disaster Risk Reduction

The implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the integration of risk reduction into development policy has never been more important.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis have exposed weaknesses and inequalities within the economic, social, environmental systems. They demonstrate the complexity of risk and the potential for cascading disaster impacts across systems and borders.

Disaster impacts are leaving countless communities behind on the path towards sustainable development and increasing humanitarian caseloads to unprecedented levels. Stronger commitment and greater collective action to reduce risk and build resilience are urgently needed if we are to achieve the SDGs by 2030 with nobody left behind.

The 35 members of the Group of Friends for Disaster Risk Reduction are a united voice calling for the integration of risk reduction into intergovernmental policy decisions taken at the United Nations in New York.

In 2022 alone, disaster risk reduction has been integrated into several of the key intergovernmental agreements reached in New York.

The Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Counties embeds disaster risk reduction at the core economic structural transformation in the LDCs through productive capacity development, infrastructure investments, COVID-19 recovery, social protection mechanisms, as smooth graduation strategies that focus on building resilience and avoiding the creation of new risk.

The Outcome Document of the 2022 Economic and Social Council’s Forum on Financing for Development makes a significant contribution toward mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into domestic and international development finance, including through the Integrated National Financing Frameworks. There is a strong call to action to deliver on the disaster risk reduction commitments of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

The Agreed Conclusions and Recommendations of the 66th Commission on the Status of Women calls for a Gender Action Plan for the Sendai Framework that will accelerate the inclusion of a gender perspective into disaster risk reduction policy and action and strengthen women’s leadership and participation.

The High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development in July will be an opportunity to take forward the outcome of the Global Platform to provide policy guidance to further promote a risk-based approach to development that recognizes the social construction of risk and its systemic nature, and builds resilience against and reduces risk posed by, current and future hazards.

As we look towards the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework in May 2023, the outcomes of this Global Platform will provide valuable input to the intergovernmental process in New York.

The Midterm Review and its Political Declaration will be critical in renewing commitment to the implementation of the Sendai Framework and in deepening the integration of risk reduction into the sustainable development agenda. The Group of Friends will work to ensure that the outcomes of the Global Platform and the Midterm Review feed into the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future in September 2023, the global stock take of the Paris Agreement, as well as in the review of and follow- up the SAMOA Pathway and the Vienna Programme of Action.

Thank you.

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