CHENNAI: The G20 Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) working group, under the Indian Presidency, concluded the third and final meeting in Chennai on Wednesday with all member countries accepting the relevant action points under the five priority areas — global coverage of early warning systems, disaster and climate resilient infrastructure, financing framework for disaster risk reduction, disaster response system, and the ecosystem-based approach to disaster risk reduction.
The consensus among countries reaffirms their commitment towards Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (Sendai Framework), to prevent new disaster risks and reduce the existing. Extensive negotiations during the two days of the meeting brought together G20 members, invited countries, besides international organisations and knowledge partners, said an outcome document released on Tuesday.
The members agreed on accelerating their efforts to enhance universal coverage of multi-hazard early warning systems and transforming them into early action. They will foster collaborations between different stakeholders to build capacities to support anticipatory action and promote pre-arranged financing so that early action saves lives and livelihoods.
Members also emphasized the need for investments in disaster and climate resilient infrastructure, with a focus on G20 principles for quality infrastructure investment. They recognised the need to strengthen public-private partnerships, blended finance mechanisms, and governance systems for resilient and interconnected infrastructure projects. They have made voluntary contributions to a compendium of good practices on disaster resilient infrastructure, in the spirit of collaboration and sharing of knowledge and expertise on infrastructure resilience among different stakeholders.
G20 stressed on the urgent need to increase financing for DRR and for better integration of DRR into public and private sector investment decisions. The G20 members agreed on strengthening existing comprehensive national financing strategies for DRR that strengthen synergies between disaster risk financing and DRR financing in a risk-layered approach. They also agreed to develop and promote the use of assessment tools to analyze and quantify the economic impact of disasters.