Disaster statistics tend to conceal realities which are much
more dramatic than numbers can express.
The reality however, becomes painfully in our everyday work
as Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies when we see more and
more families who have lost everything. In my region, Hurricane
Mitch set the country's development back by 20 years. In my
country, Peru, the economic loss caused by disasters induced
by the El Niño phenomenon came to five times the country's gross
domestic product. We still need to know the real dimension of
the impact of the earthquake and tsunami in Asia.
In other words, decades of development can be destroyed by a
disaster in a matter of hours. It is perhaps important to think
about the reasons for such destruction. Paramount among these
factors, certainly, is the implementation of development policies
which ignore a key element - risk. As I said, disaster statistics
do not tell the whole story, but the fact remains that the figures
presented during this conference are undeniable evidence that
disasters pose a development problem.
Of course, the effects of disasters have a disproportionate
impact on developing countries, which lack the means to prevent
or reduce risks, where the poorest are forced to live in the
most dangerous areas, where they use farming methods which damage
the environment and cause deforestation, where they have less
access to information, education and basic services, where finally
individual and collective security is not fully assured and,
ultimately, families' means of support are precarious.
Yet, natural disasters also affect developed countries. The
floods in Europe and the hurricane season in the Caribbean and
the United States, the cyclones in the Pacific and earthquakes
in Japan are recent examples.
Moreover, development can itself aggravate the effects of disasters
when inappropriate urban planning does not take account of risks,
is not governed by strict building regulations and does not
take into account the environmental impact of uncontrolled growth.
Poor development can even be the architect of so-called technological
disasters. Thus, considering how to reduce risks must be a concern
for everyone.
For all these reasons, we cannot consider disasters as isolated
events which affect countries' progress. We must recognize that
vulnerability to disasters is determined by a complex combination
of physical, environmental, economic, political and social factors.
For many years, in the International Federation and its member
National Societies, have concentrated our efforts on developing
a better and more coordinated response and we have made huge
strides in disaster preparation, especially at community level,
where we are strongly represented through our wide network of
volunteers. We have also been working on preparedness tools
to improve the effectiveness of global disaster response efforts
- both in terms of improving operational capacity as well as
strengthening legal and policy frameworks.
However, we are aware that preparedness is not enough. We believe
that the challenge disasters pose to governments as well as
the Red Cross and Red Crescent as an auxiliary to public authorities,
means that we must be able to work on all aspects of risk reduction.
Prevention, preparedness and mitigation cannot be done in isolation
- we must work together.
For this, coordination and collaboration by the various actors
is crucial, especially work with and by social organizations
at local or community level. This must be our challenge, our
real humanitarian work, which will save lives and protect livelihoods,
without seriously compromising the process of development and
protection of human dignity.
Working to reduce risks means developing regulatory measures
which include risk reduction at international, national, regional
and local levels, in plans, policies, legislation, programmes
and strategies. It also means promoting education and awareness
raising activities, executing actions for prevention and mitigation
to complement disaster preparedness, establishing early warning
systems, applying building codes strictly, concentrating especially
on the most vulnerable populations. It also means working with
communities to install a 'culture of preparedness', and create
a sense of how each individual can contribute to improving the
safety of his of her family and local community.
Ladies and gentlemen, to invest in risk reduction is to invest
in countries' development. It is, of course, less visible than
disaster response and emergency humanitarian aid. However, investing
in reducing vulnerability to disasters has the benefit of yielding
big long-term dividends in the social, economic and political
context.
From this platform, I wish to invite you when you go back to
your own countries to include the disaster risk variable in
your cost-benefit analyses. This will allow you, will allow
us, to assess the true scale of the benefits of the task of
reducing risks and, ultimately, sustainable development.
In the International Federation, we believe that we must look
beyond the vision of the 'disaster to development' continuum
and view the process from 'disaster vulnerability to development'.
This does not, of course, mean that we must place less emphasis
on response. Quite the contrary. We must ensure that we are
ready to respond effectively when disasters hit, but also do
our best before the disaster to reduce our
risk of being affected. Disaster management must take into account
not only the need to alleviate the immediate suffering, but
also the long-term effects of disasters.
Responses to disaster, whether they are local, national or international,
should aim to strengthen community capacities, identify and
reduce future vulnerability and support, rather than undermine,
development objectives.
In conclusion, I would like to quote the words of the famous
Latin-American writer Gabriel García Márquez when he received
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He envisaged: "A new and sweeping utopia of life, where no one
will be able to decide for others how they die, where love will
prove true and happiness be possible, and where the races condemned
to one hundred years of solitude will have, at last and forever,
a second opportunity on earth." The poor deserve a second opportunity.
I deeply hope that the results we achieve during this Conference
will be positive and quickly bring about a serious commitment
to work together.
|
 |
|
News
