Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030

The Sendai Framework is the tool adopted during the Third United Nations World Conference, at the request of the UN General Assembly with the support of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), which sanctions the transition from "disaster management", to "disaster risk management", through the recognized role of prevention activities.

The forward-looking risk reading according to the Sendai Framework follows up the "Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA)", the Action Framework established fifteen years earlier to strengthen the resilience capacity of nations and communities, and to significantly reduce the consequences of disasters.

The HFA platform boasts, among the achieved results, an improvement in the disaster risk reduction by the States and other relevant public actors at local, national, supranational and global levels, and the consequent drop in mortality for some types of risk of natural and anthropogenic origin.

The 10-year Plan, designed to boost previous disaster reduction efforts, has also left space for improvement in the formulation of objectives and consolidation of community resilience, in the event of disasters. HFA has therefore pioneered and, based on the experience gained over the years, the Sendai Framework currently defines four key priorities such as: understanding the risks, enhancing risk governance, increasing resilience and improving the "Build Back Better" practices in the recovery, restoration and reconstruction phases. A real path with over 180 countries, including Italy, engaged in the substantial reduction of mortality from disaster and in the containment of damage to the economy.

These are the key points for achieving, by the year 2030, the seven global objectives described in the Sendai Framework 2015 - 2030:

1. Reduction in the number of people affected by disasters

2. Reduction of direct economic loss

3. Reduction of damage caused by disasters on critical infrastructures and basic services

4. Increase in the number of countries with disaster risk reduction strategies

5. Strengthening international cooperation aimed at developing countries

6. Increased availability and access to multi-risk rapid alert systems

 The Sendai Agenda is a path that has lasted for 15 years, continuing that of the Hyogo Framework of 2005. A long period subject to major changes from both an environmental and a socio-political point of view. For this reason, the international community establishes some intermediate stages to confirm or modify objectives and commitments established at the time of launching the path.

The last two significant milestones - both organized by UNISDR (www.unisdr.org) the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - were the Istanbul European Forum of 26-28 March 2017, that preceded the Rome meeting of 21-23 November 2018 and the Global Forum held in Cancùn, Mexico from 22 to 26 May 2017.

Both events were attended by participants of different levels, from heads of state to ministers to institutional delegates, all committed to risk reduction in their own countries. The Cancùn Forum set the record of seven thousand registrations of delegates from all over the world.

THE ISTANBUL EUROPEAN FORUM - At the end of the Turkish capital's session there were some proposals to follow to unite the efforts of all the "stakeholders", i.e. the active and risk-reducing subjects.
Firstly, emphasis was placed on strengthening the coordination of national and local risk reduction strategies to ensure that work is aligned and shared at all levels.
Participants in the Forum also considered it appropriate to work on integrating projects of sustainable finance, risk reduction from natural disasters and environmental sustainability, especially those centered on climate change.
Another decisive theme is that of education and the increase of citizens' awareness both on the risks of the respective territories and on the good practices of prevention and behavior during emergencies. In particular, it is good that risk reduction is increasingly an integral part of local and regional development projects, especially in cases of reconstruction that are increasingly "smarter".

THE GLOBAL FORUM 2017 - The Global Forum chaired by Mexico, in Cancùn, has been one of the most important events of the last decades on the theme of risk reduction and resilience in the face of natural disasters.
The final press release is very significant (all the documents mentioned can be consulted using the links on the right-hand side of this page), in particular the section in which the delegates engage in a concrete manner ("commitments").

The call for cooperation and commitment in the years to come - that is at least until the new edition of the Forum in 2019 in Switzerland - briefly describes: the implementation of the "Sendai framework", in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, with Paris agreement on climate change and the New Urban Agenda and other instruments. The strengthening in all countries of risk assessment from disasters in general and infrastructures at risk. Increasing investment in data and information collection on loss of life and disaster risk. Strengthening of regulatory structures focused on risk reduction, virtuous use of the territory, consolidation of public-private partnerships.
Making profitable investments on resilience, creating or increasing budget dedicated to risk reduction. Ensuring that disaster risk vulnerability assessment is a prerequisite for investment in the construction sector.
Strengthening the resilience of communities by creating projects and networks directly dedicated to supporting the weakest sections of the population, perhaps thinking of networks of protection for the population; Consolidation of bilateral, regional and international cooperation for ever-stronger coordination and collaboration in tackling disaster risk.
Objectives and important projects for a constantly evolving work.

 As part of the disaster risk reduction policies that respond to the assessment of progress at the national, supranational and global levels, the Sendai Framework has inaugurated the transition from "disaster management", as promoted by the Hyogo Action of 2005, to the current extended interpretation of "disaster risk management".

"Risk is a forward-looking concept, so the disaster risk can be understood as the probability of loss of life, injury or destruction and damage from a disaster in a given period of time" (adapted from UNISDR, 2015).

Sendai sets targets for disaster risk reduction, highlighting prevention and a knowledge base of risk, promoting attention to both existing threats and new forms of technological and biological risk, on small and large scale.

This is a multi-risk disaster management combined with strengthening the resilience of a community, a priority promoted also within government policies, and financial plans with guided investments.

In fact, the strengthening of disaster risk governance is a necessary element for the development of prevention, mitigation and risk management activities, in addition to international cooperation, in order to contribute to the development of knowledge at all levels, in particular for developing countries.

Starting with the Hyogo Action Framework, the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction goal is also recognized as a prevention tool for containing future losses, and an effective investment in sustainable development.

Risks (reduction, management and knowledge) are at the centre of ten of the seventeen objectives in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, that adopts an integrated vision of the social, economic and environmental dimension.