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PRIORITYMEASURE82
“Formulate and implement strategies and policies that respond fully to situations of vulnerability tonatural disasters, withamultidimensional
protection focus before, during and after such events.”
Comments
This priority measure relates directly to the issues addressed by United Nations HABITAT, and specifically to the objective of “preventing
disasters and rebuilding settlements”, checklist 5: “disaster prevention and mitigation instruments”, which gauges the level at which disaster
prevention is ensured and mitigation instruments in place. This item includes “an extensive indicator 10, houses in hazardous locations:
proportion of housing units built on hazardous locations per 100,000 housing units.” The document entitled “The Future We Want” from the
UnitedNationsConference onSustainableDevelopment, Rio+20, paragraph 186, reaffirms the commitment to reduce disaster risks. In the SDGs,
Goal 13, “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts,” relates to this prioritymeasure, more particularly through targets 13.1,
“strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related hazards and natural disasters in all countries” and 13.2, “integrate climate change
measures into national policies, strategies and planning.”
Another international instrument is the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA), which was signed and approved in Japan in 2005 by
168 countries, and in which they undertook to introduce into public policies the concepts of prevention and risk assessment, as well as ways of
responding to disasters or the actions to be taken following a crisis. The framework contains a series of principles which the entire international
community should respect and, in line with the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, should exert pressure to have them respected. The
general objective is to build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters, in order to achieve, by 2015, a “substantial reduction in
disaster losses, in lives and in the social, economic and environmental assets of communities and countries.” The HFA offers five priority areas
for action, together with guiding principles and practical means for building the disaster resilience of vulnerable communities, in the context of
sustainable development. The following three strategic objectives provide backing for achieving the outcome called for in the HFA:
“(1) The
more effective integration of disaster risk considerations into sustainable development policies, planning and programming at all levels, with a
special emphasis on disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and vulnerability reduction; (2) The development and strengthening of
institutions, mechanisms and capacities at all levels, in particular at the community level, that can systematically contribute to building resilience
to hazards; (3) The systematic incorporation of risk reduction approaches into the design and implementation of emergency preparedness,
response and recovery programmes in the reconstruction of affected communities
.” The HFA proposes five priorities for action (reflecting the
areas identified in the process of reviewing theYokohama Strategy): “
1. Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local prioritywith
a strong institutional basis for implementation. 2. Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning. 3. Use knowledge,
innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels. 4. Reduce the underlying risk factors. 5. Strengthen disaster
preparedness for effective response at all levels
.”
It is important to bear in mind, in the strategies, policies and programmes for responding to situations of vulnerability to natural disasters, that
measures differentiated by gender and age of the exposed populationmust be implemented before, during and after the events, and accessmust be
assured to inputs and services for sexual and reproductive health and the preventionof gender violence.
There are a number of reasons for considering gender and disasters together, one ofwhich is that women aremore vulnerable todisasters because
of the role assigned to them by society, but disasters also often provide womenwith a unique opportunity to challenge and change their gender-
assigned status in society. Women have shown themselves to be indispensible in disaster response; they play an active role in reconstruction
efforts and aremore effective at mobilizing the community. Hence the need for strategies and policies that comprehensively address situations of
vulnerability to natural disasters from a gender perspective, considreing at least the following: (a) In order to study natural disasters from a gender
perspective, data must be disaggregated by sex and age; (b) involve, train and employ women at a local level in vulnerability diagnostics and
assessment, and in prevention and riskmitigation projects; (c) identify and assess specific needs by sex, in the areas of health, work, education,
housing and violence prevention; (d) ensure that women benefit from economic recovery and income support programmes; and (e) create
childcare programmes. See chapter D on “Universal access to sexual and reproductive health services”, chapter E on “Gender equality”, with its
priority measures on possible lines of action and targets that address these issues, and chapter C, in which PM 24 afford particular attention to
older persons anddisasters.
