Presentation to UNISDR Support Group
Tue, 02 Feb 2016 10:04:00 GMT
Photo: section of the government representatives took part in the ISDR Support Group meeting
GDRC’s Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga did a key presentation to the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Support Group on the progress of the UNISDR Working Group on DRR Governance and Accountability at its recently held meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
Photo: Prof Amaratunga presenting to the ISDR Support Group
Key intentions of the meeting included: descriptions of the 2 original working group themes - DRR Governance and accountability, their original scope and focus; rationale associated with the suggestion to merge the 2 groups in creating one working group group on governance and accountability; report the outcomes of the working group and the experts deliberations that followed on the day on target audiences, scope of the guide, timeline, division of labor and inputs, and finally to seek the Support Group engagement by means of Input to the working group, Host inter-governmental/ministerial meetings, Identify champions in the respective countries, Provide good practice case studies for sharing, Peer reviewing of the output, and Implementation and feedback. Target audience was recommended as National platforms and central governments with “Overall framework of disaster risk governance Accountability” as the initial focus.
There was also a discussion on the international workshop entitled “Ensuring Accountability in Disaster Risk Management and Reconstruction" that was held as a part of a global, regional and national partnership by SPARC, University of Colombo-Sri Lanka and Global Disaster Resilience Centre (GDRC), University of Huddersfield-UK, and Essex Accounting Centre, University of Essex-UK on the 8th December 2015 in Colombo Sri Lanka, including key outcomes and findings. Briefing paper that was prepared d highlighting the key findings of the workshop was also presented to the group.
The ISDR Support Group, a Geneva-based self-organized group that is composed of interested Member States, aims to mobilize the necessary political and financial support for the effective functioning of the strengthened ISDR partnership, focusing in particular on issues related to the participation of States in the system. This process ensures that information is shared between UNISDR and all UN Member States in the field of disaster risk reduction. The Support Group for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction was established in 2005 to follow-up on the process of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe.
During the support meeting, GDRC’s Professors Richard Haigh & Dilanthi Amaratunga welcomed Dr Robert Glasser, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR. Dr Glasser was recently appointed to the post by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Photo: Dr Robert Glasser, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for UNISDR with GDRC's Professors Amaratunga and Haigh
