Reducing Risk and Building Resilience: Save the Children at the Regional Platform for DRR, Montreal

Reducing Risk and Building Resilience: Save the Children at the Regional Platform for DRR, Montreal

March 6^th, 2017, Toronto…From Tuesday, March 7 – Thursday, March 9, representatives from across the Americas will gather in Montreal for the Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. The event provides a forum to discuss and agree upon a regional action plan to reduce the risk of disasters in the Western Hemisphere. More than 1,000 delegates are expected, including government ministers, civil society leaders, scientists, business people and members of the media. Hosted by the Government of Canada in cooperation with the United Nations, the Regional Platform provides the first opportunity for governments and stakeholders to discuss and agree on a Regional Action Plan to support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is an international document that was adopted by UN member states – including Canada – in 2015. The framework challenges all concerned to make Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) a priority and to recognize capacity development as central to this task.

Disasters and climate change have a profound impact on children and young people. Of those affected or killed as a result of disasters, half are children. 175 million children are affected by disasters each year and, in 2014 alone, 9 million children were forced out of education as a result of a disaster. As such, Save the Children will be attending the regional platform to ensure that the concerns of children are heard in this process.

Disasters happen routinely around the world and across the Americas. Recent examples include the 2015 wildfire in Fort McMurray, which forced the evacuation of 80,000 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. It remains amongst the worst disasters in Canadian history. Also in 2015, Hurricane Matthew killed up to 1,000 people as it ripped through Haiti last October, leaving 1.4 million in need of aid. These examples show us that better preparation for disasters remains crucial in regions prone to droughts, floods, storms and earthquakes. These physical risks are increasingly aggravated by societal problems – faltering economic growth in many Latin American nations has contributed to issues such as Venezuela’s crippling food shortages. Haiti still struggles to rebuild following its 2010 devastating earthquake, let alone recover from the recent hurricane.

In Canada, many First Nations communities are already at great risk of disaster, suffering intense impact because of remoteness and poor infrastructure. Climate change has begun to cause extreme weather in the north, as well as worsening floods and more devastating forest fires across the country. Currently there is no real comprehensive plan to address this from either the federal or provincial governments.

“This meeting of the Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is a welcome first step towards the Canadian Government addressing this crucial need. We hope that the federal government will move quickly to formulate a plan that can help Indigenous communities, provinces and municipalities build preparedness against disasters. While children are the most vulnerable during disasters, their resiliency is awe-inspiring and can be key to a community’s recovery and wellbeing. Save the Children encourages the government to work to include children’s voices in any Disaster Risk Reduction planning,” said Patricia Erb, President & CEO of Save the Children.

-ENDS-