European Disability Forum: Post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction has been adopted
European Disability Forum (EDF) welcomes the post-2015 framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), which was officially adopted on 18 March at the Third United Nations (UN) World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, and it is disability-inclusive.
The Conference was closed by a statement from Margareta Wahlström, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN ISDR), referring specifically to persons with disabilities.
She declared that, “The adoption of this new framework for disaster risk reduction opens a major new chapter in sustainable development as it outlines clear targets and priorities for action which will lead to a substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health.”
The new Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 contains many references to disability inclusion, which is a substantial improvement compared to the preceding framework. This includes monitoring and collecting data with a specific reference to disaggregated data on disability and other vulnerable groups. They will also provide a comprehensive platform from which DRR work in the coming years will be able to increase resilience to natural events, benefiting not only persons with disabilities but society as a whole.
More than 200 persons with disabilities, including EDF Board Member Giampiero Griffo, actively participated as delegates, speakers, panelists, and contributors. While the accessibility of the conference venues was not always perfect, disability rights experts established a caucus with the possibility to extend this into a future world network.
Giampiero Griffo summed up EDF’s participation at the Sendai conference by saying, “This was the first meeting that included persons with disabilities and we took the opportunity to make sure that a reference to disability is included in the document. This will also help us to push the European Commission to further include persons with disabilities in all areas of disaster risk reduction, both in civil protection as well as humanitarian aid.”
EDF will continue following this topic and advocating for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in disaster risk reduction, also at European level.
