Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2012
Section 2 Towards the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015
Japan has experienced various natural disasters, and to date has been positively involved in disaster risk reduction efforts within the international community. The World Conference on Disaster Reduction held both its first conference (1994) and second conference (2005) in Japan, and together with various participants from countries around the world, international organizations and NGOs, rolled out countermeasures to strengthen disaster risk reduction. In the previous second conference, with the objective of building disaster-resilient countries and communities, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) was adopted that prioritized the actions of, (i) Itemizing priorities in disaster risk reduction, (ii) Strengthening disaster risk assessment and early warning, (iii) Improving disaster risk reduction awareness, (iv) Reducing disaster risks, and (v) Strengthening disaster preparedness. Including Japan, more than 130 countries are striving to implement this framework for action, and the United Nations Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) carries out regular follow-up of each country's implementation status. Likewise, Japan supports these activities includes funding.
Japan is assisting the disaster risk reduction efforts of developing countries in addition to directly assisting the victims of earthquakes and floods throughout the world. At the time of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010, Japan dispatched the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) Team, and additionally provided emergency assistance immediately after the quake such as the financial cooperation of $55 million, and then further reconstruction assistance of over $54 million. Similarly, in the fall of 2011, as aid for the Thai flood damage, Japan provided emergency assistance immediately after the flooding such as dispatching the JDR Team and providing emergency relief goods and financial assistance, while also contributing around ¥8 billion of disaster risk reduction/post-disaster reconstruction grant aid focused on flood countermeasures such as raising roads and installing floodgates in rivers around Ayutthaya (See the next chapter for a detailed explanation of the Thai floods). This assistance has also accumulated, and in 2011 aid for disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction from Japan reached a total of around $1.114 billion.
The HFA is deemed by the international community as an important guideline within the area of disaster risk reduction and will reach the end of its term in 2015. It is crucial that a successive framework is drawn up with the efficacy capable of responding to emerging challenges such as climate change and urbanization, that will also promote mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (tackling disaster risk reduction at every level of public policy) within development and international cooperation, and that will be committed to the disaster risk reduction efforts of the international community from 2015 onwards. The "World Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reduction in Tohoku" mentioned in Chapter 1 Section 1 investigated the requirements in promoting specific efforts for disaster risk reduction both throughout the world and regionally. Therein it was confirmed that it is necessary to clarify within the new frameworks for action what should be done "by when," "to what extent," and "how". For that end, it was confirmed the need to consider concrete goals and targets, evaluation measures, and synthetic integration of relevant measures.
Japan expressed its intention to host the scheduled Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction continuing on from the previous two conferences, and it was officially decided by the UN General Assembly in December 2012 that the conference will be held in Japan. Ahead of the conference, there is an idea to proceed with the spearhead of efforts to mainstream disaster risk reduction within the international community, including incorporating disaster risk reduction within discussions to draw up a post-HFA, and within the international development goals (post-MDGs) from 2015 onwards.
Construction of an earthquake-resistant model house with improved soil walls. Since 2003 Japan has cooperated with enhancing the earthquake resistance of houses and the proliferation of houses of high earthquake resistance in El Salvador which experienced two major earthquakes in 2001. (Photo: JICA).