The UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030: Negotiation Process and Prospects for Science and Practice

Abstract

On 18 March 2015, at the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction, 187 members states signed the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR). This global agreement on national action for disaster risk reduction (DRR) replaced the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015 (HFA). The SFDRR agreement was only the final stage of a long process that involved many consultations across government and with civil society at national, regional and global levels. The closing negotiations were fraught and required a final 36 h non-stop stretch of debate before the host nation, Japan and supporting UN agency, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), could declare consensus. As the first major agreement for the post-2015 development agenda, SFDRR is important in its own right but also as an indicator of the likely approach that may be taken by governments in negotiating across this period. SFDRR presents some important gains for the framing of international and national policy on DRR: its vision recognizes the context dependent quality of vulnerability alongside the advantages for policy making of transferable risk reduction approaches; risk and loss are presented as outcomes of development decision-making with DRR a concern for development as much as an outcome of development; urbanization is recognized as an emergent context and driver for risk. These are steps forward. In addition, the text reflects the strong views presented from the UN Major Groups J Extreme Events, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2015) 1571001 (12 pages) © World Scientific Publishing Company DOI: 10.1142/S2345737615710013