A challenge to development

The very informative article by Bindu N Lohani deserves to be completed with some assessments and projections generated by the recent United Nations-led Regional Conference on Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into Development Planning and Financing hosted in Bangkok. 

One of the significant messages of this conference was the strong recognition by both diplomats and technical experts of the fact that building resilience to disasters must be treated as one of the most pressing development challenges faced by the Asia-Pacific region.

Multilateral diplomacy has the complex duty of using informal and formal negotiations to enable the 193 UN member states to find solutions to mainstreaming disaster-risk reduction in the planning and financing of development on all continents. Seen from this perspective, the Sendai World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which starts today, offers the chance to finalise vital negotiations and define the legal and institutional elements of a global strategy. 

Ioan Voicu