October 13 Is International Day For Disaster Risk Reduction
Author(s): UNDRR
Source: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction-Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean
The United Nations General Assembly has designated October 13th as the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction to promote a global culture of disaster risk reduction. It is an opportunity to acknowledge the progress being made toward reducing disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, and health in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan in March 2015.
In 2016, the UN Secretary-General launched “The Sendai Seven Campaign” to promote each of the seven targets over seven years. The 2020 target is Target E: “Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020” which lays the foundation for the implementation of the Sendai Framework and is closely linked with Priority for Action 2: “Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk.”
In keeping with the Day’s focus on the impact that disasters have on people’s lives and well-being, this year’s theme is about conveying the message that many disasters can be avoided or prevented if there are disaster risk reduction strategies in place to manage and reduce existing levels of risk and to avoid the creation of new risk. What that amounts to is “good disaster risk governance.”
In the Philippines, SM Prime, a member of ARISE Philippines, joins the celebration of UNDRR DRR Day. Some of SM Prime’s DRR initiatives include:
- Pre-Agreements with the Office of Civil Defense for the delivery of food and non-food items during emergencies and calamities;
- Adopt-A-City, through the National Resilience Council. The Adopt-A-City Campaign of the National Resilience Council (NRC) is an innovative pathway for private-sector corporations to collaborate with local governments, academic partners, and communities themselves in transforming their climate and disaster risk landscapes;
- Hands-Only CPR Campaign, in partnership with the Department of Health, with the goal to teach at least one member per family how to perform hands-only CPR at 120 beats per minute;
- MSME Resilience and Recovery, post-COVID 19, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Resilience Council (NRC);
- Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill in partnership with the Metro Manila Development Authority & National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to respond appropriately during the occurrence of an earthquake;
- Observance of the National Fire Prevention Month, in partnership with the Bureau of Fire Protection.
- Incident Command System (ICS) is one of the flagship programs of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) wherein it has been institutionalized as an on-scene disaster response tool of the Philippine DRRM System.
#ItsAllAboutGovernance #DRRday