The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) appreciates the opportunity to address the issue of past and future progress on human settlement.
The IFRC and its member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (RC/RC) everywhere in the world are committed to contributing, where appropriate, to these objectives and recommendations. Indeed the IFRC partners with UN-HABITAT through an MoU to share programme and technical exchange and hopes to strengthen this relationship in the future.
The natural disasters witnessed over the past months; Bam, the Tsunami, Katrina and others, are only a reminder of how critical sustainable urban planning and construction are to reducing vulnerability and risk, particularly in hazardous locations.
Construction site planning and city development must be guided by a disaster-prevention culture, planned in a way able to absorb population growth, with adequate water, sanitation and waste management to ensure a healthy environment and reduce or avoid diseases and epidemics.
RC/RC societies around the world have implemented community-based settlement programs that contribute to this objective, both during and after disasters hit and as longer-term activities.
One such example is the Zenhoum project run by Egyptian Red Crescent following the powerful earthquake which struck Cairo in 1992 leaving thousands without homes or livelihoods. Since then, an integrated approach with ministries of health, social affairs and education, the Governor of Cairo, the local government in Assalam City and elected representatives of the community has successfully made Al-Nahda a safe home for some 240'000 people.
During the earthquake last month, in Pakistan administered Kashmir, in just one single school 250 young girls bodies were pulled from the ruins.
We have to take action in the face of such unacceptable situations!
Protecting lives in disasters is first and foremost a task of government. As auxiliaries to public authorities, Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies can play a role. When settlements are destroyed one of the first priorities is to quickly establish emergency shelter.
The IFRC has long responded to such demands through the rapid provision of tents and other emergency solutions, now such a critical element of our response to the Pakistan earthquake and the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
The IFRC is applying lessons learned in the aftermath of the Armenian earthquake and Hurricane Mitch by increasingly expanding into early-recovery housing. In consultation with HABITAT, OCHA, UNDP and other we have engaged in the provision of transitional homes and the planning and reconstruction of destroyed settlements.
This includes permanent homes, schools, hospitals and clinics in Banda Aceh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and now in Pakistan.
The importance of disaster preparedness and risk reduction in all its forms is reflected in the Agenda for Humanitarian Action of the 28th International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement's Conference in December 2003.
The Movement and the 192 governments of the States parties to the Geneva Conventions jointly committed to a plan of action which includes reducing vulnerability in relation to the risk and impact of natural disasters and diseases which are often caused by the lack of safe drinking water supply, appropriate sanitation system, and unhealthy housing conditions.
Mr Chairman, States seek to protect their citizens with hazard control and prevention measures. Among them secured human settlement is a requirement. Adequate planning and construction to prepare for the unexpected should include cost-effective flood, earthquake and storm disaster resistance, which are effective means to prevent the future loss of the limited resources of the poor.
In creating a national plan a system for disaster risk management, including a risk reduction element is critical. In the context we are debating, establishment of regulations for construction and ensuring the availability of sufficient resources and capacities to achieve this must involve all parties concerned.
Development needs to be underpinned by good governance and must be done with the participation of the people in need, in particular the poor living in disaster prone areas. It is in this area where the Red Cross/Red Crescent wide network of branches, staff and volunteers can add significant value-added.
The most vulnerable populations, very often the poor, require particular attention as poverty often forces them to live in fragile settlements in the most hazardous locations.
We see the possibility to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2015 as the MDG target, however recent sources indicate that while that is happening, another 600 million people may well been drawn into the misery of slum life!
Poor people, particularly the poorest of the poor, are more vulnerable to the downward spiral. They are often more prone to disease and disasters due to their habitat and their situation, and additionally they have more limited access to social support systems.
To improve their lives we must start with vulnerability and risk reduction and resilience and capacity building. We must remember the lessons of the recent past. Populations are more and more concentrated in urban areas according to the report of the Institute for Environment and Human Security of the United Nations University in Bonn.
Environmental deterioration already displaces up to 10 million a year and the situation could get worse. Confronting this trend and reversing it takes time.
The benefits of laws, policies, and programs mitigating this risk must be thought through and continually and carefully modified to achieve their desired results.
10 years ago, more than 5000 people perished in the city of Kobe, Japan. The loss of so many lives, in a country where so much effort had been made to prepare for earthquakes, shocked observers worldwide.
As we remembered them on 17 January this year in Kobe, before the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, we must continue pursuing the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 to reduce the vulnerability to hazards.
Mr Chairman, Preparing for disasters, particularly those occurring in densely populated urban areas, mitigating their effects and responding to their consequences require effective cooperation by a broad range of actors including the United Nations, civil society and international organizations such as the IFRC. Only through such cooperation can our collective objective to create resilient communities, well protected and well organized, become a reality.
The IFRC and its worldwide network of Red Cross and Red Crescent member societies are committed to this goal.