links: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47960#.U5JlQXYTeMo
UN seeks to strengthen disaster readiness with launch of ‘Tacloban Declaration’
Tacloban
City, Philippines, was severely hit by Typhoon Haiyan when it hit the Philippines on 8 November 2013. Photo: OCHA/Akiko Yoshida
4 June 2014 – As the Philippines continues to rebuild from Typhoon
Haiyan, the top United Nations official on disaster risk reduction is
among the more than 150 representatives, mostly from Asia and Europe,
participating in a conference that will detail new policies and
principles involving disaster preparation.
Speaking in the capital, Manila, Special Representative Margareta
Wahlström noted that opportunities exist now to address underlying risks
to ensure that the next disaster will not cause similar devastation, in
line with President Benigno Aquino’s policy to ‘build back better.’
Ahead of today’s start of the three-day conference, participants were
scheduled to meet with some of the people and local officials who
suffered the brunt of the super typhoon when it swept ashore on 8
November 2013.
The typhoon killed thousands and affected nearly 9.8 million people,
displaced some 4 million people and destroyed 500,000 homes, according
to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The storm also devastated the country’s infrastructure, hospitals,
schools and public services, causing $12 billion in estimated damages.
Among other field visits, the delegates were also expected to tour the
Bislig Elementary School in Tanauan, as well as Barangay Pago, the site
of a resettlement project for some 40 displaced families.
These visits will supplement discussions on how to apply new technology
and innovations into disaster risk reduction policies, as well as how to
strengthen the state and other stakeholders in responding to disasters,
and how communities can rebuild better.
The conference will also explore ways to improve international
coordination and specialization in response to disasters. It is expected
to agree on an international disaster risk reduction and management
framework called the “Tacloban Declaration.”
That document will come as the decade-old Hyogo Framework of Action
(HFA), adopted by the world community as the global paradigm on disaster
risk reduction and management, is due to end in 2015.
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