The GPDRR is being held from May 23–28, 2022.
The United Nations disaster summit is a "wake-up call" to improve preventative measures and "stop the spiral of increasing disaster impact and risk.”
More countries must “Think Resilience” and urgently adopt and improve early warning systems to reduce risks from the increasing number of disasters across the world, the UN forum concluded.
For six days, representatives from at least 184 countries gathered in Bali to review efforts to protect communities from the rising number of climate hazards and other catastrophes around the world.
At the GPDRR, only 95 countries reported having multi-hazard early warning systems that give governments, agencies, and the general public notice of impending disaster, with coverage particularly low in Africa, Least Developed Countries, and Small Island Developing Countries.
Early warning systems have been cited as a critical defense against disasters such as floods, droughts, and volcanic eruptions in the recent Global Assessment Report, which has predicted that 560 or 1.5 disasters per day will take place by 2030, based on the current trajectory.
The report follows UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for warning systems to cover every person on the planet within five years.
"Early warning systems should be inclusive of communities most at risk with adequate institutional, financial, and human capacity to act on early warnings," the GPDRR co-chairs’ summary, known as the Bali Agenda for Resilience, stated.
"A core recommendation is to apply a 'Think Resilience' approach to all investments and decision-making, integrating disaster risk reduction with the whole of government and whole of society," as per the agenda.
The Bali Agenda for Resilience has come ahead of the 2022 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13, which is dedicated to early warning systems. It was presented at the end of the three-day Global Platform hosted by the government of Indonesia.
The meeting, which was the first international UN disaster forum since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, took place as the Midterm Review of the UN’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction got underway.
In light of the pandemic, the Bali Agenda has highlighted the need to reassess the way risk is governed and policy is designed as well as the types of institutional arrangements that need to be put in place at the global, regional, and national levels.
"Current approaches to recovery and reconstruction are not sufficiently effective in protecting development gains nor in building back better, greener, and more equitably," it said.
"Transformative lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic must be applied before the window of opportunity closes," the Bali Agenda added.
Delegates gathered at the forum also shared the progress made since the last Global Platform in 2019, with a 33-percent increase reported in the number of countries now developing disaster risk reduction strategies and reporting through the Sendai Framework Monitor, which measures progress towards global targets.
According to the Bali Agenda for Resilience, while there has been some progress, such as in the development of new financing mechanisms, and better linkages with climate action, the data still points to insufficient investment and progress in disaster risk reduction in most countries, especially in investing in prevention.
"Less than half of the countries reporting against Sendai Framework targets indicate having fit for purpose, accessible, and actionable disaster risk information," it noted.
The Bali Agenda for Resilience will be carried through to the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), the G20, and the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework.
Reporter: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
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