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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13042401/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- This document presents the opening remarks of the Second Session of the Regional Platform for DRR in the Americas by the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States. It discusses ways to reduce risks and to help the most vulnerable communities throughout the Americas become more resilient in the face of potential disaster. In the decade of 2001-2010, more than 900 disasters in the Americas amounted to over 260,000 deaths and 440 billion US dollars in damages. The document cites poverty, inequality, unplanned urbanization, lack of appropriate governance structures, social exclusion, and the destruction of vital ecological resources as factors in increasing disaster risks. It thus treats disasters, not as the result of natural phenomena, but as the result of underdevelopment and poor development choices. Major disaster events in the recent past, such as Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., and the Haiti and Chilean earthquakes and tsunami, have shown that sustainable economic growth cannot be pursued successfully unless disaster risk management is well integrated into development policy and planning. The document also underscores the trans-boundary nature of disasters, underlining the fact that in an increasingly interdependent global economy, the effects of disaster are not isolated to one country. With the disaster threats facing the region, there has been quite a bit of progress in the formulation and implementation of policy and programs for disaster risk reduction throughout the Americas at all levels. There is Peru’s Land Management Program, and Guatemala’s Reconstruction Program with Transformation at the national level; sub-regional initiatives such as the Central American Coordination Center for Disaster Prevention (CEPREDENAC), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and the Andean Committee for Disaster Preparedness and Relief (CAPRADE); and regionally, there is the Inter-American Strategic Plan for Policies on Risk Reduction, Risk Management, and Disaster Response. Despite these many initiatives, a number of challenges remain. The role of climate change in adding new levels of complexity to disaster risk needs to be factored into policy making throughout the region. A hemispheric coordination mechanism needs to be established to manage the numerous and diverse governments and humanitarian organizations responding to disasters. And more broadly, there needs to be a paradigm shift from a responsive attitude towards disaster, towards a proactive attitude that understands disaster as a product of socio-economic processes. ( English )
- Subject:
- Disaster Risk Reduction ( English )
- Citation/Reference:
- Ramdin, A. R. (2011). Opening remarks at the second session of the Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas. Organization of American States (OAS).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Refer to main document/publisher for use rights.
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13042401
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