Disaster Risk Reduction

A/RES/73/231View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 20cDisaster risk reduction, published in 2018.

What other versions does this mandate have?

10 versions · 2017–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/137

2025A/RES/80/137Disaster risk reductionLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/205Disaster risk reductionCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/152Disaster risk reductionCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/164Disaster risk reductionCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/204Disaster risk reductionCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Disaster Preparedness Disaster Prevention International Cooperation Risk Management

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2019.

2019A/74/248Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

45 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 72/218;

Urges the effective implementation of the Sendai Declaration1 and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030;2

Reiterates its call for the prevention of new and the reduction of existing disaster risk through the implementation of integrated and inclusive economic, structural, legal, social, health, cultural, educational, environmental, technological, political, financial and institutional measures that prevent and reduce hazard exposure and vulnerability to disaster, increase preparedness for response and recovery and thus strengthen resilience;

Underlines the need to address the economic, social and environmental impacts of climate change, and emphasizes the need for action at all levels to enhance efforts to build resilience through, inter alia, the sustainable management of ecosystems, and to build resilience to reduce the impacts and costs of natural disasters;

Encourages countries, the relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant institutions and stakeholders to take into consideration the important role of coordinated disaster risk governance across sectors for the achievement of sustainable development and, inter alia, the strengthening of disaster prevention as well as preparedness for effective response, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction;

Encourages focused action within and across sectors by countries at the local, national, regional and global levels in the four priority areas of the Sendai Framework, namely, understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and in order to “build back better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction;

Acknowledges the work of the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system in disaster risk reduction and the updated United Nations Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience: Towards a Risk-informed and Integrated Approach to Sustainable Development, requests the relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, and urges other relevant institutions and stakeholders, to continue to align their work with the Plan of Action, including through risk-informed strategic plans, common country assessments and United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, in order to enhance the coordination, coherence and efficiency of support to countries on disaster risk reduction, guided by the Senior Leadership Group on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience convened by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, according to the Sendai Framework;

Calls upon all relevant actors to work towards the achievement of the global targets adopted in the Sendai Framework;

Recognizes progress made in achieving target (e) of the Sendai Framework and that the development of risk-informed strategic plans, policies, programmes and investments and national and local disaster risk reduction strategies is essential for sustainable development;

Also recognizes in this regard, given the shorter time frame for achieving target (e) of the Sendai Framework by 2020, the scale of action needed for the development of national and local disaster risk reduction strategies, and thus urges States to continue to prioritize and support the development of inclusive national and local disaster risk reduction strategies, with particular focus on local strategies and programmes, and to promote their alignment and integration with sustainable development and climate change adaptation strategies, including national adaptation plans, as appropriate, making use of practical guidance to support the achievement of target (e), and notes in this regard the relevant voluntary “Words into Action” guidelines;

Urges States to prioritize the establishment and strengthening of national disaster loss databases and to conduct disaster risk assessments so as to develop inclusive and multi-hazard risk assessments that consider climate change projections to support evidence-based disaster risk reduction strategies and guide risk-informed development investments by the private and public sectors;

Reaffirms the need for the enhancement of the implementation capacity and capability of developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, small island developing States, landlocked developing countries and African countries, as well as middle-income countries facing specific challenges, including the mobilization of support through international cooperation, for the provision of means of implementation to augment domestic efforts in accordance with their national priorities;

Recognizes that effective and meaningful global and regional partnerships and the further strengthening of international cooperation, including the fulfilment of respective commitments of official development assistance by developed countries, are essential for effective disaster risk management;

Also recognizes that financing for disaster risk reduction requires greater attention, and invites the United Nations system and its entities, within the scope of their respective mandates, in partnership with international financial institutions, regional development banks and other relevant institutions and stakeholders, to explore the development of tailored financing mechanisms for disaster risk reduction;

Encourages the incorporation of disaster risk reduction measures, as appropriate, into multilateral and bilateral development assistance programmes and infrastructure financing, within and across all sectors related to sustainable development, including poverty reduction, agriculture, natural resource management, the environment, urban development and adaptation to climate change;

Encourages States to allocate domestic resources to disaster risk reduction, to include disaster risk reduction in budgeting and financial planning across all relevant sectors, and to ensure that national financing frameworks and infrastructure plans are risk-informed, according to national plans and policies;

Recognizes the important contribution of healthy ecosystems to reducing disaster risk and building community resilience, and encourages all States, United Nations bodies and other relevant actors to promote ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction approaches at all levels;

Also recognizes that economic losses are rising as a result of the increasing number and value of assets exposed to hazards, and encourages countries to conduct a disaster risk assessment of existing critical infrastructure, to support the publication of disaster risk assessments, to make disaster risk assessments a prerequisite for infrastructure and housing investments and to strengthen regulatory frameworks for land-use planning and building codes, as appropriate, towards the achievement of target (d) of the Sendai Framework, and in this regard encourages countries to integrate disaster risk reduction considerations into social, economic and environmental investments;

Acknowledges that water is essential to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and that water-related disasters and multidimensional hazards threaten lives, livelihoods, agriculture and basic service infrastructure and cause substantial socioeconomic damage and losses, and that sustainable, integrated disaster risk-informed water resource management is necessary for successful disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and in this regard invites all countries to integrate land and water management, including for floods and droughts, into their national and subnational planning and management processes;

Emphasizes that disaster prevention, preparedness, early actions and resilience-building in most cases are significantly more cost-effective than emergency response, as well as the importance of additional efforts to increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning mechanisms of States, in order to ensure that early warning leads to early action, and encourages all relevant stakeholders to support these efforts;

Urges States, while implementing the Sendai Framework, to continue working on data collection and the development of baselines on current losses, including livelihood and other losses of affected populations, and working towards the collection of disaggregated information and historical disaster losses going back, at least, to 2005, if feasible;

Encourages States to give appropriate consideration to disaster risk reduction in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,13 where it is reflected across several Goals and targets, including in their voluntary national reviews, inter alia, through the engagement of national Sendai Framework focal points early in the national review process, as appropriate, and stresses the importance of considering disaster risk reduction in the deliberations and outcomes of the high-level political forum on sustainable development to be held in 2019 and of taking disaster risk reduction into account in the implementation and review of the Sustainable Development Goals, including during the high-level political forum, over the next cycle;

Reiterates its strong encouragement of and the need for effective coordination and coherence, as applicable, in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,11 and the Sendai Framework, as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,10 the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, and the New Urban Agenda,9 while respecting the relevant mandates, in order to build synergies and resilience, translate integrated global policy frameworks into integrated multisectoral programmes at the national and local levels and reduce disaster risk across sectors, and addressing the global challenge of eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty;

Urges that due consideration continue to be given to the review of the global progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework as part of the integrated and coordinated follow-up processes to United Nations conferences and summits, aligned with the Economic and Social Council, the high-level political forum on sustainable development and the quadrennial comprehensive policy review cycles, as appropriate, taking into account the contributions of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and regional and subregional platforms for disaster risk reduction and the Sendai Framework monitor;

Recognizes that disaster risk reduction requires a multi-hazard approach and inclusive risk-informed decision-making based on the open exchange and dissemination of disaggregated data, including by sex, age and disability, as well as on easily accessible, up-to-date, comprehensible, science-based, non-sensitive risk information, for a wide range of users and decision makers, complemented by traditional knowledge, and in this regard encourages States to commence or, as appropriate, further enhance the collection of data on disaster loss and other relevant disaster risk reduction targets, disaggregated by sex, age and disability and other characteristics relevant in national contexts, in reporting on the Sendai Framework;

Welcomes the launch of the Sendai Framework monitor, encourages States to use the online monitor to report on progress against the Sendai Framework global targets and the Sustainable Development Goals related to disaster risk to provide, inter alia, a comprehensive overview of progress to inform the deliberations and outcomes of the high-level political forum on sustainable development to be held in 2019 and the sixth session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, to be held in Geneva from 13 to 17 May 2019, and notes the ongoing work towards coherence between national climate change adaptation and national disaster risk reduction strategies, as well as the Sendai Framework target indicators and national adaptation goals and indicators;

Also welcomes the endorsement by the Economic and Social Council of the Strategic Framework on Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters;

Reaffirms that the establishment of common indicators and shared data sets to measure the Sendai Framework global targets and the disaster risk reduction targets of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 11 and 13 is an important contribution to ensure coherence, feasibility and consistency in implementation, the collection of data and reporting, and in this regard recognizes the importance of prioritizing capacity-building support to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, small island developing States, landlocked developing countries and African countries, as well as middle-income countries facing specific challenges;

Recognizes that the extent to which developing countries are able to effectively enhance and implement national disaster risk reduction policies and measures in the context of their respective circumstances and capabilities can be further enhanced through the provision of sustainable international cooperation;

Also recognizes the importance of giving priority to the development of local and national disaster risk reduction capacity-building, policies, strategies and plans with the participation of all relevant stakeholders, in accordance with national practices and legislation;

Further recognizes that, while each State has the primary responsibility for preventing and reducing disaster risk, it is a shared responsibility between Governments and relevant stakeholders, and recognizes that non-State and other relevant stakeholders, including major groups, parliaments, civil society, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, non-governmental organizations, national platforms for disaster risk reduction, focal points for the Sendai Framework, local government representatives, scientific institutions and the private sector, as well as organizations and relevant agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system and other relevant institutions and intergovernmental organizations, play an important role as enablers in providing support to States, in accordance with national policies, laws and regulations, in the implementation of the Sendai Framework at the local, national, regional and global levels, and that greater efforts are needed to mobilize multi-stakeholder partnerships for disaster risk reduction, according to national plans and policies;

Welcomes the annual observance of the International Day for Disaster Reduction on 13 October and World Tsunami Awareness Day on 5 November, encourages all States, United Nations bodies and other relevant actors to observe the days to further raise public awareness of disaster risk reduction, and decides to rename the International Day for Disaster Reduction as the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction;

Encourages Governments to promote the full, equal and effective participation and leadership of women, as well as of persons with disabilities, in the design, management, resourcing and implementation of gender-responsive and disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction policies, plans and programmes, and recognizes in this regard that women and girls are disproportionately exposed to risk, increased loss of livelihoods and even loss of life during and in the aftermath of disasters, and that disasters and the consequent disruption to physical, social, economic and environmental networks and support systems disproportionately affect persons with disabilities and their families;

Stresses the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective and the perspectives of persons with disabilities in disaster risk management so as to strengthen the resilience of communities and reduce social vulnerabilities to disasters, and in this regard recognizes the need for the inclusive participation and contribution of women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as the role of youth, volunteers, migrants, local communities, academia, scientific and research entities and networks, business, professional associations, private sector financing institutions and the media, in all forums and processes related to disaster risk reduction, in accordance with the Sendai Framework;

Recognizes that biological hazards require strengthened coordination between disaster and health risk management systems in the areas of risk assessment, surveillance and early warning, and that resilient health infrastructures and strengthened health systems capable of implementing the International Health Regulations (2005), as well as increasing the overall capacity of health systems, reduce overall disaster risk and build disaster resilience;

Expresses its appreciation to the Government of Switzerland for hosting the upcoming sixth session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva from 13 to 17 May 2019, jointly organized with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, encourages participation across all sectors and ministries at the highest level possible, reaffirms the importance of the Global Platform as a forum to assess and discuss progress on the Sendai Framework and advance coherence between disaster risk reduction, sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaptation, including financing, and recognizes the outcomes of the Global Platform as a contribution to the high-level political forum on sustainable development;

Also expresses its appreciation to the Governments of Armenia, Colombia, Fiji, Italy, Mongolia and Tunisia as the hosts, in 2018, of the regional platforms for disaster risk reduction, jointly organized with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, recognizes the platforms as important mechanisms for cooperation to implement the Sendai Framework and to assess and discuss progress, and also recognizes their outcomes as contributions to the high-level political forum on sustainable development;

Reaffirms that international cooperation for disaster risk reduction includes a variety of sources and is a critical element in supporting the efforts of developing countries to reduce disaster risk, and encourages States to strengthen international and regional information exchange and sharing, including through North-South cooperation complemented by South-South and triangular cooperation, establishing and networking risk management centres, promoting critical science and technology research cooperation on disaster reduction and improving international coordination mechanisms to respond to large-scale natural disasters;

Acknowledges the importance of the work of the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system and other relevant institutions in disaster risk reduction, the substantial increase in demands on the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the need for timely, stable, adequate and predictable resources necessary for supporting the implementation of the Sendai Framework, and in this regard encourages Member States to consider providing or augmenting voluntary contributions to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction;

Recognizes the continued importance of voluntary funding, and urges existing and new donors to provide sufficient funding and, where possible, to augment financial contributions to the United Nations trust fund for disaster reduction to support the implementation of the Sendai Framework, including through unearmarked and, where possible, multi-annual contributions;

Encourages all relevant stakeholders to collaborate with the private sector to enhance the resilience of businesses, as well as the societies within which they operate, by integrating disaster risk into their management practices, to facilitate private investments in disaster risk reduction and to promote risk-informed private investments;

Reaffirms that investing in national and local skills, systems and knowledge to build resilience and preparedness will save lives, reduce the risk of displacement in the context of disasters, cut costs and preserve development gains, and in this regard encourages exploring innovative ways, such as forecast-based financing approaches and disaster risk insurance mechanisms, to increase the availability of resources for Member States before a disaster is credibly expected to occur;

Stresses the importance of promoting the incorporation of disaster risk knowledge, including disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and rehabilitation, in formal and non-formal education, as well as in civic education at all levels and in professional education and training;

Calls upon the relevant organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and resources, to ensure that no one is left behind and no country is left behind in the implementation of the present resolution;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-fourth session, under the item entitled “Sustainable development”, the sub-item entitled “Disaster risk reduction”, unless otherwise agreed.

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