Natural disaster reduction receives overwhelming support
at the 33rd session of UNESCO's General Conference (19/10/2005)

UNESCO's General Conference, gathered in Paris for its 33rd session, today adopted the report of Commission III, whose work was organized around the following three parts: issues relating to Major Programme III - Social and Human Sciences; the Preparation of the Draft Medium-Term Strategy for 2008-2013 and of the Draft Programme and Budget for 2008-2009 jointly for Major Programmes II and III; and finally issues relating to Major Programme II - Natural Sciences.

The cross-sectoral nature of many UNESCO programmes (e.g. sustainable development, science education, climate change, natural disaster prevention and preparedness, etc.) was underlined, and a large number of delegations called for an increased level and scope of interdisciplinarity and intersectorality in the design and implementation of UNESCO's programmes, as multidisciplinarity eventually constituted one of the Organization's main comparative advantages.

An overwhelming majority of speakers voiced concerns at increasing vulnerability to natural disasters. In the course of the debates, it was felt that UNESCO's programmes should further research in the geological, hydrological and environmental sciences to improve prediction and early warning. In that field, the General Conference approved the following plan of action: support of national and regional efforts for prevention and mitigation of the aftermath of technological disasters, fostering of a culture of prevention facing natural disasters as a contribution to the follow-up to the Kobe World Conference on Disaster Reduction, with a focus on knowledge management, education and information for disaster preparedness, and strengthening of the capacities of the national platforms and regional mechanisms set up to implement the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR).

The General Conference invited Member States to strengthen collaboration with UNESCO and the Secretariat of the "United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Particularly in Africa" (UNCCD) in order to celebrate the 2006 International Year of Deserts and Desertification through the arrangement of appropriate and long-term activities.

Several countries complimented the IOC for its role in leading the development of a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean as part of the completion of the climate module of the Global Ocean Observing system. In the light of the devastating tsunami which struck on 26 December 2004 and other natural disasters that have affected the world since, the Commission fully endorsed the establishment of a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean which could also be part of a global operational multi-purpose detection and multi-hazard warning system

The 17 Pacific Member States endorsed the on-going focus on freshwater, disaster preparedness, climate change studies and on developing a science culture in the island states. They stressed the vulnerability of coastal and small island developing environments and communities, and expressed concern at their possible fate as a result of a growing exposure to natural hazards. The Pacific Member States pointed to the failure of the MDGs to focus international development assistance on vulnerable groups like small island developing states and indigenous peoples and called for this situation to be remedied. Support was sought from UNESCO for national efforts in institution-building and hazard-monitoring.

The Representative of the Director General informed delegates that, within the strategy for improving water management and water-related disaster mitigation, the Secretariat was instituting measures like the International Flood Initiative and lending assistance to the creation of thematic centres under the auspices of UNESCO. These centres would network to enhance regional capacity-building capabilities and would complement the activities of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. The General Conference approved the establishment of an international centre for water hazard and risk management (ICHARM) in Tsukuba, Japan, and of a regional water center for arid and semi-arid zones of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAZALAC), in La Serena, Chile. With regard to ICHARM, speakers acknowledged Japan's long experience of mitigating water-related disasters and stressed the urgency of training the coming generation in prevention and risk management.