Ministry to develop disaster risk policy

The Ministry of Disaster Management is working to develop a National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy aimed at lessening damages to livelihood when a disaster strikes.

The ministry recently completed a two-day stock take workshop to consolidate sectoral achievements by Government ministries on the implementation of this policy.

The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, David Kolitagane, said Fiji was on track to be first in the Pacific to formulate a custom monitoring and evaluation system under the Sendai Monitor Platform.

“The work of mainstreaming DRR is of the highest priority and I firmly believe should be undertaken using a whole-of-government and indeed a whole-of-society approach.

Fiji, he said, achieved a major milestone by taking the lead in the world to validate the Target E data of the 2015 Sendai Framework for 2020.

It aims to have many countries with this reduction policy.

“In the past 10 years, Tropical Cyclones have caused more than 3 billion dollars in damages and 67 fatalities. In 2016, Tropical Cyclone Winston wiped out one quarter of our GDP in just a few hours.

“This heavy toll on our nation’s socio-economic development, is the reason why we Iaunched the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy in 2019, and why we are actively promoting its implementation by Government agencies and stakeholders.”

The workshop was in collaboration with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Pacific Office.

The updates from this workshop will be presented at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction Conference in Bali, Indonesia later this month.

The Global Platform will be the avenue in which Fiji will showcase to the world the progress accomplished thus far in disaster risk reduction, and the lessons learned and challenges encountered along the way.