Taking action on Disaster Risk Reduction

Sendai, Japan – Multi-sectoral groups continued to review the various inputs for the updated Hyogo Framework of Action, a framework document proposing Disaster Risk Reduction techniques for many countries, at the 3rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

Today, the outputs of the framework will be presented at the closing ceremony of the conference.

Global Broadcasters participate in DRR

Given their crucial role in delivering timely information to billions of people, four broadcasting unions pledged to push for greater involvement in DRR. These include the African Union of Broadcasting, the Arab States Broadcasting Union, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the European Broadcasting Union.

“We want to raise awareness,” said Giacome Mazzone, Head of Institutional Relations of the European Broadcasting Union. “It’s about the link between policy decisions and actions on the ground.”

“In order to fulfil the media’s immense potential as an information disseminator and powerful behaviour changer, the media would like to be accepted, not as a mere messenger, but a partner in developing and implementing DRR policies at regional, national and local levels, and also help dismantling the silos in which most stakeholders work at the moment,” they said.

Besides trying to create a “common language” between institutions, experts and the media, they believe that it is also important to promote “disaster literacy” among the public.

Earlier this week, Broadcasters held a parallelel meeting at the Global News Forum.

Children and youth

At the Children and Youth Presentation, representatives shared their recommendations on how they can participate in DRR activities. This includes implementing programs that are creative and engaging through the arts, music and play. They also had a parallel conference discussing inputs to be included in the second version of the Hyogo Framework of Action.