What is Sendai Framework?

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Monday struck major cities of Pakistan and Afghanistan and caused large-scale disruptions. This stresses the need for disaster risk reduction strategies to be adopted by all nations, as called for by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (Sendai Framework).

Sendai Framework is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, with seven targets and four priorities for action. It was endorsed by the UN General Assembly following the 2015 Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in the Japanese city of Sendai on March 18, 2015.

The Sendai Framework is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognises that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders.

The Sendai Framework is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.

The Seven Global Targets of Sendai Framework are:

(a) Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower average per 100,000 global mortality rate in the decade 2020-2030 compared to the period 2005-2015;

(b) Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, aiming to lower average global figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020 -2030 compared to the period 2005-2015;

(c) Reduce direct disaster economic loss;

(d) Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among them health and educational facilities;

(e) Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020;

(f) Substantially enhance international cooperation to developing countries to complement their national actions; and (g) Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030.

India will be hosting the first Asian Ministerial Conference in November 2016 for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) after the introduction of the Sendai Framework.