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Remarks by Mr Ade Petranto, Charge
d’Affaires Permanent Side Event at ECOSOC July 13 2010 Resilient Cities: Disaster Risk
Reduction in an Urbanizing World Excellencies, Distinguished
representatives, I
would like to begin by thanking our co-sponsor Ambassador Okuda for his kind
words. I
am also grateful to Ms. Margaretha Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction for joining us at this event. The
focus of this event, jointly organized by the United Nations International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), UN-Habitat and the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), brings to our
attention the issue of disaster reduction in a world that is increasingly
becoming more urban. We
have with us today three speakers that will be shortly introduced by Ms.
Wahlström, to share their perspectives and shed insight on the urban dimension
of natural disasters. I look forward to
hearing from them and I am sure that we can all gain from their experiences. As
with A
year ago, The
lessons contained in the report can be useful for our discussion today. I would
like to therefore take some of the lessons of the report as a point of
reference. One
of the lessons that I think is important is that it is very costly to recover
from such a natural disaster. Therefore one of the lessons highlighted in the
report was the need for prevention. Prevention
by being proactive rather than reactive is important. Prevention
by way of disaster risk reduction is a key factor in reducing the human and
physical cost. This
is not discounting the need for immediate emergency relief mobilized by
humanitarian efforts. However, humanitarian efforts should invest more in
prevention and go beyond the distribution of food, medicine and others. I
am pleased in this connection to inform you that For
developing countries, disaster risk reduction is a major undertaking due to
lack of capacity. We need to build and strengthen our institutional, technical
and human capacity. Without them, it is challenging to defend against natural
disasters. However,
notwithstanding the importance of building technical capacity, there is also
the preservation of local indigenous knowledge and community participation as
an important way of developing disaster risk reduction. But
while we are discussing this issue in the context of the Humanitarian Segment,
I would like to emphasize how important disaster risk reduction is in the wider
development agenda. As
Ambassador Okuda rightly emphasized that reducing the risks of disasters is a
long term effort. Cities
cannot grow in a sustainable manner unless proper disaster risk reduction
ensures that they are resilient to natural hazards. None
of the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved or sustained unless we
incorporate risk reduction into long term development planning and policies, in
all sectors of development. The
United Nations should continue to play a major role in bringing together the
knowledge, expertise and experience on development and disaster. On
that note, I now wish to give the floor back to Ms. Wahlstrom to introduce the
speakers for today. Thank
you.  |