Kenya: 3rd National Symposium on Disaster Risk Reduction
The National DRR symposium is held annually back to back with the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) which falls on 13th day of October every year. The aim of the national symposium is to bring stakeholders, DRR practitioners, academia, NGOs and the National Platform for DRR members together to share good practices, practical lessons learnt, innovations and other emerging issues in Disaster Risk Reduction/ Management (DRR/M). Additionally, the forum provides a good platform to advocate and urge the governments to implement the existing global processes in the most efficient way to enhance households, community and systems resilience to disasters.
Need for Review
The third national symposium for DRR is the first one coming after the adoption of the Disaster Risk Reduction Framework in Sendai City of Miyagi, Japan in March 2015. Although Kenya has participated in all consultative processes leading to the adoption of the Global DRR Framework, it is prudent that, the stakeholders come together in this national symposium and have a snapshot of what we achieved, what worked and what did not work and an evaluation of how far we have come and where are we heading to in the coming years.
Symposium theme
This year’s National DRR symposium theme is: From Hyogo Framework for Action to Sendai Framework: Progress, Challenges and Lessons for the Future.
This theme is carefully chosen to assist DRR practitioners and stakeholders to review of the HFA and usher themselves to the implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR.
Symposium Sub-themes
The sub-themes for the national symposium are carefully chosen based on Sendai framework priorities which are developed based on the lessons and experiences from HFA.
- Sub-theme 1: Understanding disaster risk;
- Sub-theme 2: Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risks;
- Sub-theme 3: Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience;
- Sub-theme 4: Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction