Ministry Statements & Speeches:
President of the General Assembly, Special Representative Mazutori, Excellencies and Colleagues,
Aotearoa New Zealand welcomes this important review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and supports the recommendations contained in the Report. We thank the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction for its work in producing this review.
We congratulate our good friends Australia and Indonesia for co-facilitating the successful Political Declaration. We trust that this will re-energise the world’s political commitment to integrating disaster risk reduction across policymaking efforts.
Since the Sendai Framework was adopted, the world has changed. New Zealand has faced significant, complex, and concurrent emergency events that have tested our disaster management arrangements across the ‘4Rs’: risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Around the globe we have seen how concurrent events have multiplied the negative impacts of disasters.
We continue to emphasise the need to focus on understanding multifaceted and systemic hazards with cascading and compounding impacts, particularly extreme weather and climate-related hazards. We also note these hazards’ disproportionate impact on indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and women and girls.
New Zealand’s recent experiences have reinforced our commitment to risk reduction. Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent severe weather events have resulted in the loss of life, disruption to critical services, and significant economic impacts. Coupled with the wider economic impacts of COVID-19, we understand and strongly support integrated and effective disaster risk management that involves authorities at all levels – including national, regional and local authorities, as well as indigenous and community leaders and networks.
Domestically we are working to modernise the framework of legislation and guidance that underpins New Zealand’s emergency management system.
And through our $1.3 billion (NZD) climate finance commitment, we are supporting Pacific Island and other developing countries to build climate and disaster resilience, including by:
- supporting the development of integrated approaches that address and build resilience to climate change and disaster risk management, in ways that reduce the gendered impacts of disasters. This includes our support to the effective implementation of the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific;
- highlighting the need to have high quality and context specific multi-hazard risk data, to improve both multi-hazard early warning systems, and policy and investment decisions. These need to be informed by sufficient understanding and consideration of disaster risk, including the impacts that disasters have on women and children, persons with disabilities and indigenous communities. New Zealand is working collaboratively to improve disaster-related data and analysis and decision support tools; and
- By supporting the need to develop Anticipatory Actions that are fit for local contexts, including through innovative ideas such as parametric insurance.
With the severity and frequency of disasters continuing to increase globally, it is more important now than ever that countries work together towards the shared goals and targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
New Zealand welcomes the efforts of all countries to reduce disaster risk nationally and globally. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder: tātou, tātou — all of us together.
Thank you.