17 January 2005

Kobe, Japan: Disaster risk management policies and programmes must include local volunteers and support them in their crucial role in prevention of and response to natural and human-induced calamities. This is the message the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme seeks to convey to senior UN and government officials during the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR), which starts tomorrow in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.

Increasing the awareness of the importance of disaster reduction policies is one of the dominant themes of the five-day conference, where UNV is set to demonstrate that trained and organized volunteers can help communities prepare for, and lessen the impact of, catastrophic events, such as now being experienced in the aftermath of last month’s devastating Indian Ocean tsunamis.

“The capacity of local level volunteers to be effective agents in disaster risk management is one of the most critical determinants in how communities cope with disasters,” says Robert Leigh, UNV’s Senior Policy Specialist. “Local volunteers must be properly prepared and supported to ensure their effectiveness in coping with disasters is maximized.”

Examples of UNV’s engagement in disaster preparedness can be found in many disaster prone countries. In India, UNV, the Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have implemented a bottom-up approach to disaster preparedness. UN Volunteers, often serving in their own communities, work with residents, local and regional officials and representatives from non-government organizations to develop community-based disaster mitigation programmes.

“Thousands of villages in hundreds of districts in India are now ready to face and survive disasters, “ says Kinuko Mitani, UNV’s Programme Officer in India. “After the 26 December tsunamis, we can see the difference this preparedness training through volunteers has made to a number of communities on the south coast of India – less people lost their lives.”

Government officials in India’s Tamil Nadu state say that one village that received training in search and rescue had a lower death toll in last month’s tsunamis. A nearby village that did not receive the training experienced a substantially higher loss of life.

Mr. Leigh says the Kobe conference will also provide the opportunity to formally recognize the many millions of ordinary citizens who engage themselves in the immediate aftermath of disasters. He says increasing the awareness of their role should have a positive influence on the international community’s support for volunteer inclusion in disaster reduction policies.

“Volunteerism is one of the oldest response mechanisms to disaster situations,” points out Mr. Leigh. “UNV, as the focal point in the UN system for promotion of volunteerism, strives towards greater recognition of volunteerism in disaster management. With this in mind, governments must equally realize that while volunteerism is cost effective, it is not cost free.”

This is the second World Conference on Disaster Reduction to be held. The first conference took place in Yokohama in May 1994 and set fourth a plan of action called the Yokohama Strategy. The strategy outlined a number of concrete guidelines for action on prevention, preparedness and mitigation of disaster risk for the period 1994-2004. This month’s conference will review the progress made since the Yokohama conference to define a new plan of action for the years 2005 to 2015, and to facilitate the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals - a set of time-bound targets to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

Ad de Raad, UNV’s Executive Coordinator, will address conference participants on Wednesday, 19 January. On Thursday and Friday, 20 and 21 January, Mr. de Raad will actively participate in two Public Forum events that are organized jointly by Japanese NGO's, volunteer involving organizations, Kobe city government, Hyogo Prefectural government and UNV itself. As a result, it is expected that UNV's collaboration with these partners will be further strengthened and form an increasingly integral component of UNV's activities.