Disaster risk reduction under the spotlight |14 September 2022
Guests and participants in a souvenir photograph after the launch ceremony (Photo: Joena Meme)
A training workshop on monitoring the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Loss Data Collection (2015-2030) is taking place at the Coral Strand Hotel at Beau Vallon.
The three-day workshop organised by the Disaster Risk Management Division (DRMD) in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR,) was opened yesterday morning by the director general of DRMD, Robert Ernesta.
The Sendai Framework focuses in helping countries to develop disaster risk reduction strategies, make risk-informed policy decisions and allocate resources to prevent new disaster risks and loss of valuable data.
It is also to protect livelihoods, promote health and protect the well being of people, businesses and communities from natural, biological and technological hazards.
It also recognises the fundamental importance, integrating and synergising multi-faced layers of society which include economic, structural, legal, political technological and environmental measures to prevent and reduce hazard exposures, vulnerability to disasters, preparedness for response and recovery.
The Sendai Framework Monitor (SFM) online tool was launched by UNDRR in March 2018, to help countries assess progress and challenges in implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction at global, regional, national and local level.
The SFM data base will allow disaster management officers to account for disaster impact losses on people, on infrastructure, on essential services further to evaluate measures and policies with the aim of improving them.
The aim of the three-day training is to strengthen the capacities of stakeholders involved in disaster loss data collection and on the implementation and monitoring of disaster risk reduction (DRR) actions.
The training will enable to collect, count and aggregate data on losses and damages due to disasters and to contribute to the monitoring of the Sendai Framework.
They are supposed to understand the importance and the potential of the framework further to understanding the data requirements to be completed so as to monitor it infectively and efficiently.
The training is being attended by government authorities and experts responsible for data collection, implementation and monitoring of disaster risk reduction, response and recovery and sectoral statistics related to disasters and development policies and programmes from DRR, National Bureau of Statistics Seychelles (NBS), sector departments (agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, health, education, productive sectors), United Nations system (e.g., UNRCO, UNDP, Unicef, WHO, FAO) and NGOs (e.g., Ceps, National Red Cross). It is partly funded by the European Union in the context of a much larger regional project called resilient building and disaster response management involving the Indian Ocean Commission (COI) neighbouring countries. It is being facilitated by Katarina Soltesova, risk knowledge management officer, UNDRR regional office for Africa and Auriana Loupot, UNDRR programme analyst and monitoring officer.
In launching the training, Mr Ernesta said that apart from enabling UNDRR to monitor its monitoring agencies in terms of where the country is in the implementation of the Sendai Framework, the tool will permit the DRMD and other agencies to strategise in terms of disaster risk reduction.
He added that the training has come at an opportune time as it will contribute to one component of the disaster and information management system that needs to be set up within the DRMD to better bring the process and the architecture for disaster risk reduction.
He thanked the international partners for helping to improve people’s lives around the world through strategising to mitigate the effects of disaster risk reduction.
Addressing the participants, the UN Risk coordination officer for Seychelles and Mauritius, Alexander Mancham, said that disasters of all kinds compromise the lives and livelihoods of people and undermine sustainable development and Seychelles is not exempt to this reality.
He noted that as a small island state, our country have unique vulnerabilities and is particularly susceptible to external shocks and so one of the primary objectives is to reduce climate related losses in the human, economic, social physical and environmental components of society.
He said that we have a moral imperative and ethical obligation to try to reduce disaster risk and prevent the loss of invaluable data, to substantially improve the situation as our country demands it, and our planet requires it.
Delivering a few words, Ms Soltesova said that as a result of climate change, disasters, be it natural or man-made associated with technological hazards, are becoming more frequent and impacting on the entire human system.
She noted that the collected data through the SFM will directly contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) related to disaster risk reduction while information on how disaster impact the society can help in the drafting of disaster risk or climate change adaptations strategies to ensure that no one is left behind.
The training continues today and will end tomorrow.
Patrick Joubert
