Preparedness

Description

The people of Japan offer poignant testimony to the value of preparedness. The urgency of building national and local capacities for preparedness is well-recognized; yet systematic and predictable solutions to building those capacities have remained elusive.
This session seeks renewed commitment to address the challenges of financing and coordinating preparedness efforts that connect national to local as well as international systems, link different sectors, and anticipate multiple hazards. Between 2005 and 2010, major efforts were undertaken to prepare for a severe influenza pandemic. Diverse actors took steps to prepare for and mitigate against the potentially devastating disruption a severe pandemic could have on the vital functions of society. Those efforts included many of the same elements of more general disaster preparedness. The “Toward a Safer World” Initiative has identified and analyzed those achievements in an attempt to promote their replication in broader disaster preparedness programmes. As Dwight Eisenhower famously said, “the plan is nothing; planning is everything”.

Chair/Moderator/Faciliator

Dr. David Nabarro, Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza (CHAIR)

Speakers

Ms. Laura Gurza Jaidar, General Coordinator for Civil Protection, Mexico
Dr. Geoffrey Love, Director, Weather and Disaster Risk Reduction Services Department, World Meteorological Organization
Ms. Christine Marin, Member of French Parliament, Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Dr. Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General for Polio, Emergencies and Country Cooperation, World Health Organization
Mr. Rashid Khalikov, Director, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva

Report

> Report on Preparedness Roundtable [PDF, 175.27 Kb]