A third and final round of meetings is underway this week in Geneva to agree to benchmarks of success of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a fifteen-year agreement reached by the international community. Sendai is the successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action, that had been agreed to just weeks after the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The Hyogo Framework, which was in effect from 2005 to 2015, identified five priorities for reducing disaster risk, but did not set specific targets. Prisere LLC had delivered analysis, reporting and recommendations to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, in respect of implementing the Hyogo Framework in Europe:
- http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/48254
- http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/44673
- http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/39593
- http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/33275
- http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/19690
During the ten years that the Hyogo Framework was in effect, 130 UN Member States submitted reports on progress made in implementing disaster risk reduction measures. Over that period, countries reported progress on risk reduction policies even as disaster-related losses continued to increase. Prisere LLC argued that the divergence was the result of moving goal posts: countries were making progress in reducing disaster risks, but emerging risks from climate change and man-made hazards made progress appear more elusive. The Sendai Framework attempts to quantify measures of achievement to bring clarity to the implementation of disaster risk reduction policies.