Address by the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Andries Nel at the BRICS Joint Task Force on Disaster Management, Buffalo City
Programme Director,
Director of the Department of Prevention and Preparation for Disasters, National Secretariat of Civil Defense and Protection, leading the Brazilian delegation, Ms Adelaide Pereira Nacif,
Head of Civil the Defense Department EMERCOM leading the Russian delegation, Mr Oleg Manuilo,
National Disaster Management Authority representative leading the Indian delegation, Dr Pradeep Kumar,
Heads of Disaster Management Centres in South Africa,
Officials from the respective spheres of government,
Good morning,
Thank you for opportunity address this important BRICS Joint Task Force on Disaster Management.
We have just concluded the BRICS Friendship Cities, Local Government Cooperation and Urbanisation Forum.
Last night we adopted the Buffalo City declaration that calls for further cooperation and collaboration in the manner in which we deal with the challenges of urbanisation and the development of cities.
The Declaration reaffirmed our commitment to building resilience.
One of the key areas of agreement from the conference was that Disaster Risk Management is essential to strengthening the resilience of cities.
Your meeting takes place shortly before the 10th BRICS Summit under the theme, “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution.”
This underscores the importance of also developing strategies that best utilise our technological advances to mitigate the effects of disaster.
Global context
According to a 2015 joint study by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), disasters caused by natural hazards represent one of the biggest threats to human safety and sustainable development today.
In the last decade, disasters have caused approximately 75,000 deaths, affected almost 200 million people and cost an average of US$ 162.2 billion per year.
These disasters brought death and destruction, and they did so more often to the poor and marginalized, those least able to mitigate and recover.
Indeed, disasters have become one of the main threats to sustainable development on a global scale.
The increase in disasters is also linked to global climate change.
This will significantly affect the frequency and intensity of hazard occurrence in Sub-Saharan Africa - both producing new vulnerabilities as well as aggravate existing ones.
2015 was a milestone in securing global commitments to address the risks and vulnerabilities faced by the poor and marginalized.
The adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals, and a new global agreement on climate change were all signed 2015.
Our shared challenge is to translate these developments and global consensus into meaningful actions.
The 2017 Global Platform hosted under the theme, “From Commitment to Action,” was the first to take place after the adoption of the Sendai Framework.
It provided an excellent opportunity for countries, international organizations and other stakeholders to assess implementation, identify measures to drive action further, share lessons, forge partnerships and strengthen cooperation.
The deliberations across sessions identified the following additional priorities:
- Monitoring implementation of the Sendai Framework;
- Achieving target E which deals with substantially increasing the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020;
- Coherence with the sustainable development and climate change agendas;
- Gender-sensitive and inclusive disaster risk reduction; and
- International cooperation initiatives, such as private-private and public-private cooperation and building a coalition of countries for critical infrastructure.
We are confident that you will take these important issues into account in your deliberations and implementation of the Joint Action Plan.
BRICS joint action plan and roadmap: building responsive, inclusive and collective solutions
Programme Director,
The implementation of the BRICS Joint Action Plan and Road Map is fundamental for us to effectively manage disaster risks.
In this regard, we note that the Chairperson of the BRICS Task Force on Disaster Management must ensure provision of strategic leadership in ensuring overall implementation of the Action Plan.
We encourage each member country to –
- Share information on different hazards including climate change adaptation measures;
- Share good practices on risk assessment and the application of advanced technologies;
- Undertake study tours to respective institutions to share good practices on institutional arrangements, including the command, coordination and control structures and systems from a country level (national) perspective;
- Exchange of information on Forecasting and Early warning systems hazard models; and
- Exchange of information and systems to improve Sendai Monitoring and Reporting and information management systems.
Buffalo City Declaration
We are aware that measures have been put in place for Heads of Disaster Management to present the Buffalo City Declaration to their respective Ministers for signing.
We noted that you are committing to take the necessary measures to implement the Joint Action Plan and present progress in the next BRICS Ministerial meeting in 2019.
We encourage the Joint Task Force to use all available means to ensure that the Road Map for implementation of the Joint Action Plans is implemented.
We confirm that South Africa will actively participate in all activities related to the implementation of the Joint Action Plan.
Programme Director,
We wish to draw attention to the 2017 BRICS Leaders Xiamen Declaration, which states the following regarding Disaster Management:
“Recalling the Saint-Petersburg and Udaipur Declarations of BRICS Ministers for Disaster Management and the decision to establish a BRICS Joint Taskforce on Disaster Risk Management, we underline the importance of consistent joint work of emergency services of BRICS countries aimed at building a safer future by reducing existing disaster risks, including exchange of information on best practices concerning disaster risk management and cooperation in the field of forecasting and early warning for effective response to natural and human induced disasters.”
We are confident that you will approach the implementation of the Joint Action Plan guided by the spirit of what President Cyril Ramaphosa, quoting the famous South African musician, the late “Bra” Hugh Masekela, has called: “Thuma Mina!” or Send Me.
This highlights the themes of self-sacrifice, individual responsibility and the importance of a personal change in mindset, required of us in the provision of service to our people and in building community resilience to disaster risks.
We thank you!
