Ten years of HFA implementation have seen major investments and many successes, but new research by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) points to five important lessons, writes by Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations & Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) for the Eurasia Review.
She writes: First, disaster risk reduction fails in a policy vacuum; Second, innovative risk financing mechanisms such as catastrophic bonds and index-based parametric insurance must be seriously considered to overcome the challenges of traditional insurance systems; Third, evidence-based policy-making will be key to successful implementation of the successor to the HFA; Fourth, science and technology is a powerful enabler of disaster risk reduction; Fifth, disaster early warning systems are increasingly effective in saving lives. The real challenge begins the morning after the Sendai Conference.