Asia Pacific nations ink declaration on disaster risk reduction

Bambang Muryanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta | Archipelago | Fri, October 26 2012, 4:52 PM

Fifty Asia Pacific nations and institutions signed on Thursday the Yogyakarta Declaration on Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR) in Asia and the Pacific.

“We call on the declaration's stakeholders to integrate local DRR and climate change adaptation programs into national development planning,” National Disaster Management Board chairman Syamsul Maarif said at the Jogja Expo Center (JEC) in Yogyakarta at the close of the Asia Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

The declaration calls on stakeholders to improve the legal framework for disaster risk management, assess the risk of disasters at the local level, develop risk prevention programs within local communities and pay attention to groups vulnerable to disaster, such as children, women and disabled.

The special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for disaster risk reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, who also attended the conference, urged stakeholders to implement the declaration.

“We also hope to inspire other countries as to how you can make sure that the capacity of local government and local level community can be strengthened,” Wahlström said.

The biennial conference was attended by delegations from 50 nations in the Asia Pacific region and 20 other nations from other parts of the world, as well as 200 international organizations and 170 national organizations.(han/lfr)