Developing a new roadmap for making Myanmar safe and resilient

In collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, and the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group, the United Nations Development Programmehas initiated a process to update the strategy to manage disaster risk in Myanmar.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the Government of Myanmar undertook measures to minimize disaster risk and improve resilience of communities through the formulation and implementation of the Myanmar Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction (MAPDRR) 2009-2015.

U Soe Aung, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said, “Because of global warming and climate change, the nations, including Myanmar, are facing severe natural disasters in these days. Meanwhile, man-made disasters are challenging us. Therefore, we need to accelerate our efforts to minimize disaster risk and build resilience.”

Myanmar now needs a more inclusive national framework that strengthens the existing disaster risk reduction mechanism by integrating best practices from the implementation of MAPDRR during 2009 to 2015, and its regional and global commitments.

“Combining best practices and lesson learned from the MAPDRR with our commitments to Sustainable Development Goals, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response is necessary to make Myanmar safe and resilient,” said DrKoKoNaing, Director General of Relief and Resettlement Department.  

In today’s workshop, stakeholders shared and discussed accomplishments and lessons learned from the implementation of the MAPDRR for the last seven years.

Some of the most significant achievements of the MAPDRR were the development of the Disaster Management Law and Disaster Management Rules, and mainstreaming disaster risk management into development agenda of every ministry and department. Stakeholders also noted that the absence of national-level monitoring and evaluation of the MAPDRR activities was an important lesson learned and must be addressed in the new MAPDRR.

“We see that disaster risk reduction and sustainable development are one and the same. Sustainable development cannot happen without disaster risk reduction. The hard-won development gains could be washed away by a disaster. The only successful route to sustainable development is to integrate disaster risk reduction into development plans and programmes,” said DawLatLat Aye, Team Leader of the Environmental Governance and Disaster Resilience Programme, UNDP Myanmar.

“We are not at the beginning anymore and have achieved a number of milestones in building disaster resilience in Myanmar. It is time to shift emphasis from advocacy to implementation. The Sendai Framework and the other global development frameworks could be perceived as the practical vision for implementing policies at the country level,” she added.

“The Government of Myanmar has established a Disaster Management Fund and a new institutional structure at national level that will collaborate with various stakeholders such as local governments, parliaments, civil society organizations, academic institutes, private sector and the communitiesto make Myanmar safe and resilient,” said U Soe Aung, Permanent Secretary.

Today’s workshop developed a process for formulation of a new MAPDRR building on the accomplishments and synergies with other relevant action plans.