What do the Filipinos who were victims of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, smallholder farmers in Zambia and the inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Tajikistan all have in common? In all three, people have been and still live at the mercy of natural and climatic disasters. Regardless of the media attention such cases receive, the damage can be devastating when there is an earthquake, a tornado or a prolonged period of drought.
With this in mind, the SDC is active at two levels to reduce the risk of disasters throughout the world: through cooperation projects developed with local partners on the ground, and regularly highlighting the issue in the international arena.
A matter of concern for everyone
Switzerland's message on the matter is crystal clear: disaster risk reduction is everyone's business. Donor countries are called on to invest more in attaining this goal, at the same time recognising that the governments and people of those countries exposed to natural hazards must continue to assume the overall responsibility for their own security.
When we think of humanitarian aid we immediately think of rescue operations in the wake of a disaster, and yet it also plays a crucial role in saving lives through preventative means. Indeed, all cooperation projects must anticipate the risks weighing over populations in order to reduce them. If we want to achieve sustainable development, we need to work on the causes of disasters to raise the capacity of potential victims to adapt to the risks.
The SDC uses this logic to plan its activities. In Southern Africa, for example, smallholder farmers can obtain insurance as protection against drought and flooding. Combined with a microcredit, this insurance enables them to adapt to climate change and diversify their sources of income. In Tajikistan, reducing the risk of damage caused by landslides requires eco-friendly management of natural resources.
Southern Africa: Ensuring food security for smallholder farmers with microinsurance and microcredit
Disaster risk reduction and integrated watershed management in Muminabad, Tajikistan
New framework for action
The SDC will have a chance to present its experiences from the field at the next major meeting that the international community has set, from 14 to 18 March 2015 in Sendai, Japan. At that summit governments will adopt a new framework for action in the area of disaster risk reduction, ten years after the Hyogo Framework for Action was established (named after the Japanese city that hosted the talks). The Sendai summit will take place exactly four years to the day after the Fukushima disaster.
What kind of preventive measures should be systematically adopted? How can donor countries support the governments of countries prone to disaster risk? How can local communities be more closely involved? There will be no shortage of questions, and the government representatives attending will have to agree on the answers.
The SDC has taken a leading role in the preparations for the Sendai summit. At the summit itself, the Swiss delegation will be led by Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter and include a number of specialists from the SDC. Representatives from the Federal Office for the Environment, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and several Swiss partner NGOs will also take part.
Interview with Philipp Beutler, in charge of disaster risk reduction (DRR) at the SDC
