UN: 'All in effort' to respond to natural disasters
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A deluge in Pakistan, a ravaging earthquake in Haiti, all upended the lives of millions of people, and to diminish the death toll of natural disasters and work on its overall prevention calls for an "all in effort" and the modification of a country's mindset, a UN expert said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Although natural disasters get in the way of member states to actualize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on time, they are not an excuse and can be battled by man, said Jordan Ryan, director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), a part of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). "There is nothing natural about a natural disaster."
Having increased in frequency and intensity over the last decades, natural disasters continuously affect a greater number of people and primarily target those marching at the lower ends of society. An estimated 97 percent of the global disaster mortality risk is concentrated in low- and lower-middle- income countries, according to the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
The disaster solution calls for the greater preventive efforts, "regardless its socioeconomic status," he said.
"It needs to be a societal effort with exchange of experience," he said, pointing out that it is not just the Natural Disaster Ministry that has to be prepared, but also civilians, military authorities and the Ministry of Finance that allocates funds.
Ryan noted the importance of forward planning and investment before disasters. "The prevention agenda never seems to get enough attention," he said, urging countries to come together in either regional settings or sub-regional settings and share experiences.
"You can reduce the risk of loss of life. If buildings are built through certain codes, they can withstand the tremendous force of earthquakes," Ryan said, adding that as well through education advocacy campaigns the risk of disasters can be reduced if they become part of national development plans.
Governments these days are much more committed to implement and look more actively at disaster risk systems, Ryan explained, ticking off New Zealand as a model country as it was hit by an earthquake earlier this month leaving no one dead, which is partly attributable to an established and well-funded civil action response plan.
"It's a nation that understands it on a fault line, but its building itself up to be able to respond to that," Ryan said, urging all countries in the world, especially those that are most prone to earthquakes and floods, to have that same idea of capacity in the same level that allows them to be prepared.
Other examples of countries that currently actively seek emergency response plans according to Ryan include Ecuador, where politicians, ministers in finance and government officials are actively involved with national preparedness, or Vietnam, where early warning systems for typhoons for fisherman at sea have been established.
Another example country is Bangladesh, having incorporated early warning systems that have significantly reduced the death toll from typhoons over the course of the last years. Books on disaster prevention and awareness building are being distributed to children in Chinese primary schools, and awareness in Central Asian countries, very prone to natural disasters, has significantly grown.
But certain early warning systems and action reduction risk programs generally are still underfunded, he said. "It is very difficult to get sufficient resources from international communities or elsewhere."
"Countries that take this agenda very seriously have the ability to reduce the total in terms of impact of MDGs," Ryan said.
"You spend a lot of money on infrastructure, why not spend money that gets people understanding what they can do to reduce risk?" he asked.
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