Sustainability begins in Sendai

According to an opinion piece on Huffington Post by Margareta Wahlstrom, Head of UNISDR and the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sendai agreement will guide efforts to reduce mortality and economic losses over the next ten to 15 years.

Japan's legacy in disaster risk reduction is obvious in the titles of ground-breaking texts such as the 1994 Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World, and the Hyogo Framework for Action adopted ten years ago in Kobe, reads the opinion piece. Kobe is less than 600 kms from Sendai where thousands will gather this weekend to debate its successor, a new framework on disaster risk reduction by hosting a world conference on disaster risk reduction for a third time.