Parliamentary Protocol for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
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PARLIAMENTARY PROTOCOL FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION ALIGNED WITH THE SENDAI FRAMEWORK FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION 2015-2030 This publication was made possible by the generous support of the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada. Published in February 2019. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ...............................................................................................................................................................5 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................6 Chapter 1. Parliamentary protocol for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation .....................................9 Legislation related to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation ...........................................................................10 Parliamentary oversight for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation..................................................................13 Debate, approval and parliamentary oversight of the budget for risk reduction and climate adaptation ........................................15 Chapter 2. Sendai Framework priorities ...................................................................................................................18 Priority 1: Understanding disaster risk reduction ...............................................................................................18 Actors and citizen participation ...............................................................................................................................................18 Factors for understanding risk ..................................................................................................................................................19 Access to Information...............................................................................................................................................................20 Priority 2: Disaster risk governance ...................................................................................................................21 Transparency and accountability ..............................................................................................................................................21 Types of legislation ..................................................................................................................................................................21 Ideal minimum standards in disaster risk reduction legislation ...............................................................................................22 Priority 3: Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience ................................................................................24 Assessment of risk areas and sectors and investment incentives ..............................................................................................25 Costs and benefits of investment .............................................................................................................................................25 Priority 4: Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “build back better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction .....................................................................................................................26 Follow-up and monitoring mechanisms for the “build back better” process ............................................................................26 Sectors and means to promote resilience .................................................................................................................................26 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................27 Annexes .................................................................................................................................................................28 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................................................29 PARLIAMENTARY PROTOCOL FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION 3 KEY TERMS1 Adaptive capacity: The combination of all the strengths, attributes and resources available within an organization, community or society that can be used to manage and reduce disaster risks and strengthen resilience.2 Climate change: A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.3 Disaster: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts. Disaster management: The organization, planning and application of measures preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters. Disaster risk: The potential loss of life, injury or destroyed or damaged assets which could occur to a system, society or a community in a specific period of time, determined probabilistically as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity of the affected community. Disaster risk governance: The system of institutions, mechanisms, policy and legal frameworks and other arrangements to guide, coordinate and oversee disaster risk reduction and related areas of policy. Disaster risk management: The application of disaster risk reduction policies and strategies to prevent new disaster risk, reduce existing disaster risk and manage residual risk, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of disaster losses. Exposure: The situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production capacities of goods and services and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas. Extensive disaster risk: The risk of low-severity, high-frequency hazardous events and disasters, mainly but not exclusively associated with highly localized hazards. Hazard: A process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation. Hazards may be natural, anthropogenic or socionatural in origin. Natural hazards are predominantly associated with natural processes and phenomena. Anthropogenic hazards, or human-induced hazards, are induced entirely or predominantly by human activities and choices. Several hazards are socionatural, in that they are associated with a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors, including environmental degradation and climate change. Intensive disaster risk: The risk of high-severity, mid- to low-frequency disasters, mainly associated with major hazards. Resilience: The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management. Vulnerability: The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards. 1 Report of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Indicators and Terminology Relating to Disaster Risk Reduction. United Nations, 2016. https://www.preventionweb.net/files/50683_oiewgreportenglish.pdf 2 2009 UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. UNISDR, 2009. p.10. https://www.unisdr.org/files/7817_UNISDRTerminologyEnglish.pdf 3 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 4 PARLIAMENTARY PROTOCOL FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION Foreword In 2015, representatives of 187 United Nations Member States met at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, and adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The Member States reiterated their commitment to this issue, as well as to building resilience, stating the need to “address disaster risk reduction and the building of resilience to disasters with a renewed sense of urgency within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and to integrate, as appropriate, both disaster risk reduction and the building of resilience into policies, plans, programmes and budgets at all levels and to consider both within relevant frameworks.” This sense of urgency is also reflected in the decision made by the countries participating in the Sustainable Development Summit (SDS) to include within Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): “End poverty in all its forms everywhere,” and “build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate- related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.” Disasters have the capacity to drive populations into situations of poverty and are one of the main obstacles to laws, programs and policies designed to overcome poverty and reduce inequality, as established in the Global Assessment Report on Disaster