Disaster Risk Reduction General concepts Vlatko Jovanovski,MDMa Protection and Rescue Directorate ul.Vasko Karangeleski 8, 1000 Skopje vlatko.jovanovski@dzs.gov.mk +389 75 457 538

Content Disaster risk reduction DRR challenges Conclusion Evolution Core elements DRR challenges Climate change Urbanization Information management Conclusion

DRR a moving agenda International Decade on Natural Disaster Reduction 1990-1999 United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) 2000 Global Platform for DRR 2007 1994 Yokohama Strategy – World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2005 World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction - Kobe IDNDR – On December 11, 1987 UN General Assembly declared the 1990s as the International Decade on Natural Disaster Reduction. The reason was promotion of internationally coordinated efforts to reduce material losses and social and economic disruption caused by natural disaster especially in developing countries. Set of expectations were developed for the national governments. Yokohama Strategy – in the middle of the IDNDR there was certain dissatisfaction of the top-down policies towards natural disaster reduction. There fore on the conference in Yokohama two strong messages were sent that influenced future developments in this area. The first one was that the states should show clear understanding of the cultural and organizational characteristics of each society as well as of its behavior and interactions with the physical and natural environment. The second was toward bigger mobilization of the NGO sector and the local communities. HFA 2005 – 2015 – Five priority actions: Make DRR national priority; Identification, assessment and monitoring of disaster risks; Using knowledge and inovation for DRR; Reducing underlying factors and Strengthening preparedness capacities.

Hyogo Framework for Action 2005 - 2015 Make DRR national priority; Identification, assessment and monitoring of disaster risks; Using knowledge and innovation for DRR; Reducing underlying factors and Strengthening preparedness capacities.

DRR definition “The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development.” Source UNISDR,2009

Disasters as social constructions Pakistan floods, 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2010 Hurricane Katrina, 2005 Great East Japan earthquake,2010

Iceland volcanic erruption,2010

Disaster Management (DM) Disaster Risk Reduction Conceptual framework for DM Disaster Management (DM) Disaster Risk Reduction Resp Rec. Risk Assessment Prevention Mitigation Preparedness Risk Analysis Risk Eval. Understanding disasters as social constructions is actually rejection of earlier modernist understandings of the catastrophic event as an ‘accident’ originating outside society, in favour of seeing such events as directly linked to how the human and natural worlds work and interact. This move from ‘outside’ to ‘inside’ society denotes important changes in the nature of disaster management. Rather than saving lives or protecting populations, today’s neoliberal turn instead privileges the support of livelihoods and the protection of critical infrastructure. Rather than separating people from danger, or placing barriers between them and potential harm, there is a new willingness to encourage the positive embrace of risk and uncertainty as life affirming opportunities and essential conditions for the strengthening resilience. Sustainable development

Another Risk Model

Concept of Risk Risk(R) HAZARD(H) VULNERABILITY(V) DISASTER Modified from C.Wamsler, Lund Univerisity 2012

Risk Assessment Answers the questions: Challenges What can happen? How likely is that to happen? What will the consequences be? Challenges Risk perception Time Agent Multi-hazard

Risk assessment products

Risk assessment outcomes Source:I.Davis,2012

Challenges Urbanization , More than half of the world’s current population lives in cities By the year 2015 there are expected to be 60 megacities in the world, each with a population of 10 million or more people High concentrations of resources and people within cities also mean that the economic social, and environmental costs of extreme events are high in urban areas ,

Challenges Climate change increase the frequency and magnitude of many types of extreme events, including floods, droughts, tropical cyclones and wildfires change the nature of many types of hazards may lead to relocation within and between countries

Challenges Digital era Number of cell phone users is bigger than the total world population Use of social media in disaster management

“The difficulty in securing and maintaining resources for disaster risk reduction is that if it is successful, nothing happens and nobody knows about it” John Tomblin,1988