Consensus and hopes for concrete outcomes at Kobe disaster conference

As the World Conference on Disaster Reduction [18-22 January] draws to a close in Kobe, Japan, delegates are feeling the pressure to come up with concrete outcomes from what has been described as the largest ever meeting on natural disasters.

The week has been overshadowed by the "dark cloud" of the Indian Ocean tsunami, which the director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), Salvano Briceno, described as a “terrible coincidence and one that has helped raise awareness by taking place some days before the conference”.

The Indian Ocean disaster, induced by a massive earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on 26 December 2004, has directly affected at least 12 countries, claimed more than 170,000 lives and left many thousands injured. The International Labour Organisation said in a statement that the tsunami had also destroyed the livelihood of at least one million people in the affected areas.

The full economic damage done by the tsunami has not been estimated, but experts at the conference reckon it to be colossal, setting back development efforts and, according to one delegate from the Asian Development Bank, plunging millions of people into poverty.

The conference, hosted by the Japanese government 10 years after the last world disaster summit - held in Yokohoma - was planned for over two years. It comes at a time when national governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations are calling for increased attention on disasters and substantial changes in how the world seeks to address them.

Not only have the delegates been discussing the need for redoubled global efforts towards implementing early warning systems and disaster risk management, but the overriding consensus in Kobe is that the mechanisms for addressing disasters must be mainstreamed into strategies for sustainable development. No longer can the world afford to treat natural disasters as an optional area of concern or a separate pillar of assistance, delegates maintained.

“As the world population expands, more people are affected by natural disasters,” the ISDR’s Briceno told IRIN, “The increase of mega-cities, environmental degradation, unplanned urban growth only increases vulnerability. So, although we have more awareness of disasters we also have a higher level of vulnerability - it’s a double-edged sword.”

The loss of life and huge economic damage caused by a wide range of natural disasters each year are retarding development and undermining efforts to reduce poverty. Reducing poverty and accelerating development are the express objectives of major international agencies, international financial institutions (IFI) and donors’ assistance policies. They are also at the heart of the Millenium Development Goals – a body of targets nations have set themselves for improving their peoples’ wellbeing.

“Only recently have we begun to understand the relationship between disasters and the erosion of development goals,” IRIN was told by Anthony Spalton of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. ”Because disaster prevention has fallen between the humanitarian and developmental sectors it has been under-resourced and under-valued.”

This view was echoed by conference delegates in Kobe from across the board, whether national delegations or development financiers, high-tech meteorologists or grassroot agencies. With the urgency created by the tsunami and the added energy that has given the conference, there has been a unanimous desire to see disaster risk reduction become an integral part of sustainable development planning.

With more than 3,000 participants, including over 300 official delegations and agencies from 120-odd countries, the Kobe conference has the highest concentration of decision-makers, environmental scientists and experts who deal with disaster risk reduction, management, mitigation and response.

Organisers told IRIN that the level of multi-national ministerial participation in the conference was low before the tsunami. After 26 December it rose considerably as applications from people wishing to register for the conference swelled.

Despite the action-oriented mood of the summit some participants remain skeptical that anything concrete will emerge from the five-day gathering. They fear the ‘outcomes document’, currently being drafted, will fail to incorporate firm commitments and clear targets for a substantial reduction of the number of people affected by disasters globally.

Eva Von Oefreich, chief of the Disaster Preparedness and Response Unit of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, warned on Thursday that “there is still time for a positive outcome but there is a very real danger that all we will get is rhetoric”.