GAR 2015 Main Report

263

ombudsman to assist in resolving conflicts.

Voluntary standards

Voluntary standards have the potential to become a transformational force in strengthening accountability. They can help raise awareness and engagement in risk management by offering simple and agreed metrics put forward in a language and formats familiar to businesses, local governments and communities ( GAR 13 paper

UNECE, 2014

UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). 2014,Standards and Normative Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Management, Background Paper prepared for the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR..
Click here to view this GAR paper.

). The consistency and interoperability of risk and loss information are particularly critical to adopting and applying disaster risk metrics, but they require voluntary standards to achieve those ends.

Currently risk management standards use tools, indicators and language that can enable diverse stakeholders to pool expertise and resources and effectively ground both business strategies and policy-making objectives. But promoting and widening the reach of the transformative energy of voluntary standards requires investment by both governments and the private sector ( GAR 13 paper

UNECE, 2014

), for example in the quality infrastructure required to monitor and provide credible evidence of compliance as well as quality, reliability and dependability.

These investments will allow a meaningful comparison across geographies and time frames on the basis of agreed and clear metrics. Even without a formal certification process, their successful implementation can generate not just a sense of shared responsibility but also real shared value ( GAR 13 paper

UNECE, 2014

). In this way, national and international standards can contribute to transforming concrete practice in communities, businesses and governments, as well as promoting a change in the culture of accountability from a businesssavvy one of cutting costs by circumventing regulation to one where compliance with voluntary standards is seen as an investment with a potentially high rate of return.

In order to harness the power of voluntary standards, governments can play a crucial role in promoting and widening their reach by making them available to and encouraging their application in small and medium enterprises, universities and vocational institutions, and by convening the standardization community for disaster riskrelated consultations and decision-making processes ( GAR 13 paper

UNECE, 2014

). The infrastructure that would be required to successfully support the spread and further development of standards requires investment in skilled professionals who can audit infrastructure and industrial plants on the basis of cross-sector and sector-specific standards.

Setting targets and monitoring progress

Accountability also depends on some form of monitoring, evaluation and reporting as well as benchmarking and target-setting. Another critical means of transformation, therefore, would be to strengthen the monitoring of progress in a way that increases transparency and accountability. There are a number of ways in which this could happen.

The first is to set global and national targets for the reduction of disaster risks, together with understandable and measurable indicators. As disaster losses are only indicators of development failures, monitoring trends in those losses can be a powerful tool for measuring the transformation of development. Measuring whether disaster losses and impacts are trending up or down can provide insight not only into the progress of disaster risk reduction, but also into the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Secondly, in order to capture the full scope of progress, it is necessary to monitor risk management outputs not just across the disaster risk reduction sector but across all development sectors with respect to whether the different

	263 ombudsman to assist in resolving conflicts. Voluntary standards Voluntary standards have the potential to become a transformational force in strengthening accountability. They can help raise awareness and engagement in risk management by offering simple and agreed metrics put forward in a language and formats familiar to businesses, local governments and communities (UNECE, 2014 x UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). 2014,Standards and Normative Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Management, Background Paper prepared for the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR.. Click here to view this GAR paper. ). The consistency and interoperability of risk and loss information are particularly critical to adopting and applying disaster risk metrics, but they require voluntary standards to achieve those ends. Currently risk management standards use tools, indicators and language that can enable diverse stakeholders to pool expertise and resources and effectively ground both business strategies and policy-making objectives. But promoting and widening the reach of the transformative energy of voluntary standards requires investment by both governments and the private sector (UNECE, 2014 x UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). 2014,Standards and Normative Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Management, Background Paper prepared for the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR.. Click here to view this GAR paper. ), for example in the quality infrastructure required to monitor and provide credible evidence of compliance as well as quality, reliability and dependability. These investments will allow a meaningful comparison across geographies and time frames on the basis of agreed and clear metrics. Even without a formal certification process, their successful implementation can generate not just a sense of shared responsibility but also real shared value (UNECE, 2014 x UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). 2014,Standards and Normative Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Management, Background Paper prepared for the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR.. Click here to view this GAR paper. ). In this way, national and international standards can contribute to transforming concrete practice in communities, businesses and governments, as well as promoting a change in the culture of accountability from a businesssavvy one of cutting costs by circumventing regulation to one where compliance with voluntary standards is seen as an investment with a potentially high rate of return. In order to harness the power of voluntary standards, governments can play a crucial role in promoting and widening their reach by making them available to and encouraging their application in small and medium enterprises, universities and vocational institutions, and by convening the standardization community for disaster riskrelated consultations and decision-making processes (UNECE, 2014 x UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). 2014,Standards and Normative Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Management, Background Paper prepared for the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR.. Click here to view this GAR paper. ). The infrastructure that would be required to successfully support the spread and further development of standards requires investment in skilled professionals who can audit infrastructure and industrial plants on the basis of cross-sector and sector-specific standards. Setting targets and monitoring progress Accountability also depends on some form of monitoring, evaluation and reporting as well as benchmarking and target-setting. Another critical means of transformation, therefore, would be to strengthen the monitoring of progress in a way that increases transparency and accountability. There are a number of ways in which this could happen. The first is to set global and national targets for the reduction of disaster risks, together with understandable and measurable indicators. As disaster losses are only indicators of development failures, monitoring trends in those losses can be a powerful tool for measuring the transformation of development. Measuring whether disaster losses and impacts are trending up or down can provide insight not only into the progress of disaster risk reduction, but also into the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Secondly, in order to capture the full scope of progress, it is necessary to monitor risk management outputs not just across the disaster risk reduction sector but across all development sectors with respect to whether the different	Page 1 Page 10 Page 20 Page 30 Page 40 Page 50 Page 60 Page 70 Page 80 Page 90 Page 100 Page 110 Page 120 Page 130 Page 140 Page 150 Page 160 Page 170 Page 180 Page 190 Page 200 Page 210 Page 220 Page 230 Page 240 Page 250 Page 253 Page 254 Page 255 Page 256 Page 257 Page 258 Page 259 Page 260 Page 261 Page 262 Page 263 Page 264 ->Page 265 Page 266 Page 267 Page 268 Page 269 Page 270 Page 271 Page 272 Page 273 Page 274 Page 275 Page 276 Page 277 Page 280 Page 290 Page 300 Page 310