This post focuses on DRR and DRM, the Sindai conference and how this can change how countries rebuild after a disaster.

This week’s class focused around the DRR and DRM and the importance of inclusive emergency preparedness. The UN had a large role in raising awareness for the importance of an inclusive emergency framework with the Sendai Conference, the subsequent Global Platform, and the Dhaka conference. As climate change causes more frequent, more damaging and deadly natural disasters, the global community is more empowered than ever to create inclusive sustainable development plans for disaster relief.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) have been tailored to be inclusive through numerous stakeholders. There is a concept in the disaster stakeholder group that natural disasters are in fact not natural (even if the associated hazard is) and only “by reducing and managing conditions of hazard, exposure and vulnerability that we can prevent losses and alleviate the impacts of disasters”[1]. DRR and DRM focus on managing risks, not just disasters, it focuses on the policy objective of anticipating and reducing risk. Both the Dhaka and the Sendai conference focused their efforts on DRR, DRM and peoples with disabilities. Due to the disproportionate amount of casualties that people with disabilities experience during disasters and emergency situations, the UN and other stakeholders have focused on creating specific measures that allow for people of all abilities, age, gender, race and poverty level to have equal amounts of protection as abled people.

The Sendai Conference was held with this in mind. The conference is heralded as the benchmark for an inclusive conference, with every effort made to make it as inclusive as possible. The Sendai Conference was the 3^rd global UN Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan and was held in March 2015 and funded through the Nippon Foundation. What emerged from the conference was a non-binding agreement that arched over 15 years that highlights the need for individual states to work with other stakeholders to work to improve preparedness for disasters. Additionally, the Sendai conference was impactful as it altered the focus of disaster management to disaster risk reduction and highlighted the importance of rebuilding cities in an inclusive and sustainable way that would be less susceptible to natural disasters. The conference integrated both advocates for persons with disabilities as well as the elderly.  The conference outlines seven targets and four priorities for action and implementation guidelines to aid stakeholders to reduce disaster risks [2]. These measures need to be enacted in every country because natural disasters are becoming more prevalent and powerful and often, when disaster strikes, cities rebuild with little change. This leads to a reemergence of problems. In developing countries, one disaster can wipe out decades of development work and millions of dollars’ worth of investment, however, it presents an opportunity to rebuild smarter and more inclusive.