The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) are pleased to announce the 2014 meeting of the Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management which will be held from 2nd – 4th June 2014 at the Novotel Hotel in Suva, Fiji. The Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management is the annual opportunity for Pacific island countries and territories, development partners and donors, civil society, private sector as well as other stakeholders to share experiences and knowledge in building the resilience of their communities to disasters. In addition, the SPC will also convene the 20th Regional Disaster Managers Meeting also at the Novotel Hotel from 5th – 6th June 2014.
In 2011, the Pacific islands region agreed to develop a Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific (SRDP) by 2015 to succeed the Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management Framework for Action 2005 – 2015 and Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change 2006 – 2015. The new strategy will provide a new approach on how to efficiently address DRM and Climate Change within the context of risk resilient development. The process of developing this new strategy has become known as the ‘Roadmap’.
The 2014 Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management is a very important milestone of the ‘Roadmap’ process and in receiving valuable Pacific stakeholder input on elements of the successor of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA+), all contributing to the determination of disaster and climate resilience in the broader global development agendas. The broad purpose of this meeting is to seek the contributions and endorsement of the DRM and Climate Change ‘community’ and a range of stakeholder groups for the SRDP, and to provide input into and build commitments for the Post-2015 HFA+.
The objectives of the 2014 Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management are:
- Strengthen interaction between the ‘Disaster’ and other communities in the Pacific, and provide the opportunity for stakeholders to contribute and endorse the Strategy for Disaster and Climate Resilient Development and contribute to the development of the Post-2015 Framework for DRR (HFA+)
- Facilitate the sharing of experiences and ‘lessons learned’ on DRM amongst Pacific island countries and territories and stakeholder groups
- Celebrate the achievements and progress review of the implementation of the current Hyogo Framework of Action
- Prepare and develop commitments by the Pacific for the Third World Conference on Disaster Reduction to be held in Japan in March 2015
The 20th Regional Disaster Managers Meeting will provide the opportunity for the Heads of National Disaster Management Offices throughout the Pacific region to have open discussions and exchange of ideas with SPC and other partner organisations on different aspects of DRM capacity building. It will also provide for the first Regional Steering Committee of the EDF10 ACP-EU Project: Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific.
Specific details including meeting timetable, administrative arrangements including accommodation and travel will be made available shortly. We look forward to working with you to make the meetings a success in June 2014.