In the newsletter circulated by United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori writes an update on the on-going efforts and initiatives by DRR Organizations and Advocates in the fight against COVID-19.

There is worldwide recognition that the fight against COVID-19 will mainly take place in our cities and towns. The denser the population, and the more informal the human settlement, the more likely it is that the virus will spread.

In my opinion piece, with the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, we highlight the fact that some 95% of COVID-19 cases have come from urban areas where pandemic preparedness is more urgent than ever, particularly in challenging situations where disease outbreaks could coincide with an extreme weather event.
It was a theme that I revisited in a webinar organized by our Panama Regional Office The cities of the Americas and the Caribbean facing COVID-19: Resilient Cities. A major economic contraction could plunge 28 million people in the region into poverty in one of the world’s most urbanized regions.

Later this year, the Making Cities Resilient Campaign will be succeeded by an initiative joining forces with UN-Habitat, the World Bank, UCLG, ICLEI, and other partners to shift the focus from advocacy to implementation of local DRR strategies to enhance local resilience over the next decade.

In my recent remarks to the Executive Bureau of UCLG I highlighted three focus areas:

First, provide advisory support for improved and risk-informed investment and development planning, climate finance, municipal finance, and climate adaptation;
Second, improve coordination between national and local governments and national associations of local governments for risk reduction measures,
And third, forge strong partnerships at the local level for more efficient implementation of policies for local resilience.

The lack of funding has been identified as the biggest challenge in building local resilience and we hope this broadened engagement will help cities to overcome this. We also want to enhance city-to-city exchanges and mentoring amongst local governments at different stages of development.

RESPONSE, RECOVERY AND PREVENTION

The International Recovery Platform (IRP) has produced a useful compendium for COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery comprising 21 tools and guidelines for Health Sector Recovery; Private Sector and Livelihood Recovery; Inclusive Recovery; and Disaster Recovery Governance.

Recovery from COVID-19 must seek to build the resilience of public and private systems and the sooner we start planning to factor in biological hazards and risks in national and local DRR strategies (Sendai Framework Target (e), the better.

The wider recovery effort will require multisectoral participation to address a range of issues that are also relevant for many other types of disaster (e.g. infrastructure, education, governance, commerce). The unprecedented nature of the current disaster requires consideration of new approaches in order to recover better.

The COVID-19 Recovery Policy Brief for decision and policymakers defines the COVID-19 recovery context and supplements existing guidance with key principles and practices to guide recovery planning.

LEARNING AND GUIDANCE

Work is continuing through our Regional Offices to ensure national strategies are aligned with the Sendai Framework on the inclusion of biological hazards and risks.

For instance, our Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific has completed a review of 22 existing national strategies to examine the level of integration of biological hazards. The Office is now moving to interviews with country Sendai Framework focal points to understand and support countries in strengthening their risk management governance.

Similar review processes are underway in all other Regional Offices.

Given the concentration of COVID-19 cases in urban settings, the Regional Office for Arab States has developed a questionnaire on cities’ role in preparing and responding to COVID-19.

PARTNERING AND SHARING

We recently disseminated the UNDRR Statement by the Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism on “Applying Lessons from COVID-19 Prevention and Risk Reduction to Build a Sustainable and Resilient World”. It calls on government leaders to:

Implement a preventive approach as we build back better.
Commit to protect the most vulnerable.
Strengthen multilateralism based on long-term vision, democratic values, human rights, health equity, accessibility, social justice, and respect for nature.
Provide messaging consistent with medical advice and ensuring that harmful misinformation is quickly countered.
Encourage appropriate individual action.

The Statement reads: “Despite the disruption and suffering caused by COVID-19, we are provided with a rare opportunity to develop case studies, lessons learned and policy guidelines on the risk management of the pandemic and share them globally. It also will lead us to revisit much that underpins our modern world – from governance, investment, production, and consumption, to our relationship with nature and each other, placing risk reduction at its heart.

ADVOCACY

The UN Secretary-General has appointed Ricardo Mena as the new Director of UNDRR. Ricardo has a wealth of disaster response and DRR knowledge from his field and HQ experiences. He joined UNDRR as head of our Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean in 2009. Since 2017 he has been chief of branch in charge of Supporting and Monitoring the Implementation of the Sendai Framework. In his new role as my deputy, Ricardo is well-positioned to become an even stronger advocate on behalf of DRR.

Do check out our ongoing series of blog posts under DRR Voices on PreventionWeb. Dr. Rahel Steinbach highlights how gender and age are decisive factors influencing people’s ability to prevent, prepare for and recover from COVID-19 and its consequences. PhD researcher, Sapana Basnet Bista, has four recommendations for inclusive risk communication. Dr. Aaron Clark-Ginsberg writes about How DRR can help reduce elderly loneliness during the pandemic.

#PreventionSavesLives

I hope that you will find this update useful and informative.
If you would like more information about UNDRR’s many activities, please do visit www.undrr.org and please — stay safe and well.

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Author: UN News | Date: 2 June 2020

‘Dogged pragmatism’ is needed to save the Ocean as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, according to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean.

Peter Thomson, who hails from the Pacific Ocean island of Fiji, spoke to UN News ahead of World Oceans Day marked annually on 8 June, and explained why it’s crucial not to forget how important the Ocean is, to the future of the planet.

Where are we right now in terms of the physical health of the Ocean?

Peter Thomson, President of the 71st session of the General Assembly during the reception by co-hosts (Sweden and Fiji) at The Ocean Conference at the UN on June 05, 2017., by UN Photo/Ariana Lindquist

The Ocean is in trouble. Some 60 percent of the world’s major marine ecosystems have been degraded or are being used unsustainably. We know that the Ocean is getting warmer, that it is losing oxygen and becoming more acidic. These changes, driven by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, are incrementally making life underwater more difficult, with big implications for life on land.

Deep cuts in our greenhouse gas emissions are required if we want to reverse the declining health of the Ocean.

As we approach the massive task of socio-economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the self-interest of our species lies in investing public funds into a future of sustainable projects that help the environment and the climate.

Why should we care so much about the Ocean?

Billions of people depend on the Ocean for their main source of protein and millions of others draw their livelihood from the seas. It’s estimated that marine fisheries provide 57 million jobs globally.

Covering 70 percent of the earth’s surface, absorbing 25 percent of all carbon dioxide CO2 emissions and 90 percent of the heat generated by our greenhouse gas emissions, the Ocean is the planet’s largest biosphere and climate regulator.

It generates 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe and is often described as the lungs of this planet. It is also the planet’s largest carbon sink, making it one of our greatest allies as we face the challenges of global warming.

But the Ocean’s resistance and resilience are not infinite, and we cannot expect it to endlessly absorb the effects of unsustainable human activities.

It is said that trouble for the Ocean means trouble for the people, for we cannot have a healthy planetary ecosystem without having a healthy Ocean.

To what extent do you see the current COVID-19 crisis as a way to provoke a rethink of the way humankind treats the Ocean?

Coral reefs like this one in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt generate income as underwater tourist attractions., by Coral Reef Image Bank/Fabrice Du

In this respect I urge you to think about the six principles that UN Secretary-General Guterres laid down in his Earth Day address this year, principles that included ending fossil fuel subsidies, polluters being made to pay for their pollution, and investing public funds into a future of sustainable projects that help the environment and the climate.

The future of human health, of sustainable food and socio-economic systems, of renewable energy and of a stable climate relies on a healthy Ocean. Therefore, I trust that the tragedies suffered through the COVID-19 crisis will not be repeated by returning to the planet-polluting policies that preceded the pandemic. The best interests of our countries and communities lie in investing in the clean, green transition.

At this time, decisions on massive financial commitments are in train, and before the seal is set upon them, we should ensure the consequences of taking the low road back to the polluting fossil-fuel dependant world we knew, are understood and avoided. Governments, development banks, agencies, corporations, none should allow themselves to avoid long-term responsibilities in the name of short-term expedience.

Humankind will continue to rely on the Ocean for a wide variety of resources, but can this reliance be more sustainable?

It absolutely can, as long as we take the approach of blue-green recovery and give the Ocean the respect it deserves. This approach is all about getting the balance right between protection and production.

The Ocean will provide us with the future we want, be it through better medicines, nutrition, or sources of renewable energy. Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, marine biotechnologies, ecotourism, the greening of the global shipping fleet and more, these will give us the resilience and sustainability we seek.

A sustainable ‘blue economy’ which takes into account the well-being of our Ocean will give us a healthy future, but only if we first correct our bad habits on land.

How does that look on a small island developing state?

SDG Goal 14: Life Below Water., by United Nations

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly vulnerable to global economic shocks and they are in need of special assistance at this time.

Many of these countries are highly dependent on tourism for foreign exchange earnings and employment. As lockdown measures ease, urgent attention is required to restore travel connections between compatible countries in order to allow some resumption of tourism. The same relaxation is required for trade and services between compatible countries.

How optimistic are you about the Ocean in the light of the coronavirus pandemic?

I try to be neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but instead concentrate on the dogged pragmatism required for us to implement our internationally agreed goals.

A 2018 report on global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told us that limiting global warming to sustainable levels would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. While life-altering pandemics are not the prescription for mitigation of climate change, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated possibilities for unprecedented change.

Perhaps the greatest risk of the pandemic would be that we lose sight of the most fundamental challenge facing humanity, which is the effect that climate change is having on our planet, now and in the future.

We must stay focused on the rapid reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions to levels that will keep global warming to no more than 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels. Without such action, we will be placing the wellbeing of future generations of humans in great jeopardy.

The good news is that we have a universally agreed plan to save life in the Ocean which will also fight climate change and reduce rates of global warming. I refer to SDG 14, one the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

SDG 14 sets out to conserve and sustainably use the resources of the Ocean. Taken together with the Paris Climate Agreement, the faithful implementation of SDG 14 and the Sustainable Development Agenda will lead us to the future we want for people and for the Ocean.

Life Below Water and the UN

Conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources is the central focus of SDG 14 one of 17 goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The world’s oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind.
Our rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea.
Over 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihood.

Tag: Recovery

An update from Mami Mizutori, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction — 25 June 2020