High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework

BACKGROUND

Convened by the President of the General Assembly, the High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 will take place from 18-19 May 2023 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, following the 8th Meeting of the UN Senior Leadership Group on DRR for Resilience, taking place on 17 May.

The High-level Meeting will provide a platform for Member States, the United Nations system partners and other stakeholders to reflect on the findings and recommendations of the Midterm Review, to examine context shifts and emerging issues since 2015, and identify course corrections and new initiatives to more effectively address the systemic nature of risk, and realize the outcomes and goals of the Sendai Framework, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and other agreements, frameworks and conventions. The High-level Meeting will also feature the adoption of a Political Declaration. 

The process leading up to the High-level Meeting and the reports of the midterm review of the Sendai Framework and the Main Findings and Recommendations of the Midterm Review of the implementation of the Sendai Framework has included rich contributions from Members States, the UN system and many partners and stakeholders at national, regional and global levels.

OBJECTIVES OF THE HIGH-LEVEL MEETING

• Raise global awareness and generate political will and momentum to integrate risk reduction in all decision-making, investment, and behavior in alignment with the Sendai Framework to reduce disaster risk and build resilience across sectors;
• Showcase solutions and best practices to address gaps and obstacles and announce commitments and plans to accelerate implementation;
• Encourage the adoption and application of a risk-informed and prevention-oriented approach, through multi-sector practices on disaster risk management and resilient development planning;
• Showcase the value proposition of the full implementation of the Sendai Framework for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States; and
• Enhance national, sub-regional and international cooperation to realize risk-informed decision-making, investment, and behavior to inform strategic foresight to prevent or prepare for future global crisis.

FAO AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

At no other point in history have agri-food systems confronted with such an array of new and unprecedented threats, including, manmade conflict, economic and market shocks, extreme weather, unusually large desert locust swarms, and emerging biological threats like the COVID-19 pandemic. These hazards not only take lives but also devastate agricultural livelihoods and inflict cascading negative economic consequences at the household, community, national and regional levels that can endure for generations.

FAO believes that investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction, especially data gathering and analysis for evidence-informed action, is of paramount importance to ensure agriculture's crucial role in achieving sustainable future.

Holistic responses and cross-sectoral collaboration are key in the disaster response. FAO supports the call for countries to adopt a multi-hazard and multi- sectoral systemic risk management approach to anticipate, prevent, prepare for and respond to disaster risk in agriculture. Strategies need to integrate not only natural hazards but also anthropogenic and biological threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and must be based on an understanding of the systemic nature and interdependencies of risks.

Innovations such as remote sensing, geospatial information gathering, drones and disaster robotics, and machine learning are powerful new assessment and data gathering tools that have much to offer in the quest to reduce disaster risks in agriculture.