Statement by Mr. Kenzo Oshima, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, INSARAG Regional Meeting for Americas

Fairfax, USA, 4 May 2002
It is indeed my great pleasure to speak to the participants of the Americas meeting of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) here in Fairfax, USA. This meeting has been organized, among other things, to discuss the INSARAG strategic direction as defined at the last INSARAG Steering Committee in February this year, to further develop the concept of regional cooperation in the Americas region with regard to disaster preparedness and response, to be informed of INSARAG activities in other regions of the world, and to foster additional support for the draft UN General Assembly (GA) resolution on urban search and rescue to be introduced at the forthcoming session of the GA.

I would like to thank the government of the United States, especially the USAID/OFDA for hosting this event, and the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department for the excellent support and the warm hospitality extended to all of us. I wish also to express my particular appreciation to Mr. Toni Frisch, Chairman of INSARAG, for inviting me to address this meeting. In February last year, soon after I became the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), he invited me to open the first meeting of the Core Group of countries supporting the establishment of an urban international search and rescue convention, and since then I have been closely following the progress of INSARAG.

Coming from Asia, which is one of the most disaster-prone regions of the world, I am painfully familiar with the devastation and great human suffering caused by natural disasters, notably earthquakes. During the last 50 years, according to the Center for Epidemiology of Disasters, earthquakes have killed in Asia alone more than 1.3 million people - a staggering figure indeed. As a national of Japan I recall the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which became one of the most devastating in the long history of earthquakes affecting my country and in which international Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) assistance was deployed.

We have also in our recent memory several other major earthquakes in Taiwan, Turkey, India, El Salvador, to name just a few, where, similarly, international USAR assistance took place on a large scale. Most recently, we witnessed a series of earthquakes in Afghanistan, compounding the already dire situation in a country consumed by long conflict and extensive drought, and which is trying hard to find stability and recovery in a post-conflict peace-building process. As ERC, I am responsible for coordination work on natural disasters in two ways: first as head ofOfficefor the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for emergency and disaster response and preparedness, and second as the Under-Secretary-General in charge of supervising the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Secretariat and Chair of the Inter-agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction. In discharging these responsibilities, I work closely with all interested partners within and outside the UN system such as civil society groups and NGOs involved in both disaster response and reduction activities.

Allow me now to present to you as background a brief overview of problems caused by natural disasters and how we in the UN system are trying to deal with them.

• It has been widely noted that there has been an alarming increase around the world in the occurrence of natural disasters in the closing decade of the 20th century. The greater frequency, and worse still, increasing severity, especially of weather-related natural disasters (primarily through global warming, such as flooding, drought, wind storms), means that tolls in loss of life, property and material damage are also increasing considerably.
  
  
• Another stark fact related to this disturbing trend is that developing countries are disproportionately affected by the impact of natural hazards because of their greater vulnerabilities arising from a variety of factors. Without going into details, let me simply note that, of an estimated 200 million persons annually affected by natural disasters over the past decade (a number that is seven times more than those annually affected by conflict and civil wars), the vast majority of them are living in developing countries. As if in a vicious cycle, these natural disasters strike hardest the vulnerable, making them unable to cope or recover and poorer.
  
  
• As a result, the impact of natural disasters on increasingly vulnerable societies not only deprives gains in development but also constitutes a significant obstacle to the attainment of key goals identified in the UN Millennium declaration in 2000, in particular those related to environmental protection and poverty reduction. In other words, there is now a growing recognition among many countries that natural disasters increasingly constitute a threat to sustainable development and that, based on this recognition, an international strategy or plan of action is needed to appropriately address this problem.

What has the UN done to meet these challenges? Many examples of achievement in dealing with natural disaster related issues during the last decade exist:

• OCHA improved the system's response to natural disasters through ongoing improvements to a number of response mechanisms for which it is the secretariat, including the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) system, INSARAG, and Military-Civil Defense Unit (MCDU).
  
  
• UNDP successfully engaged with, and built the capacities of national preparedness and planning institutions, particularly in Latin America and South Asia.
  
  
• The International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), in which a number of agencies such as WMO, FAO, UNESCO and many other organizations and institutions as well as governments participated, highlighted the importance of natural disaster reduction. It raised standards for integrating disaster reduction and provided a platform for scientific and technical development in areas related to disaster risk management such as improved early warning.
  
  
• As follow-on to the IDNDR, which ended in 1999, the GA launched the ISDR in 2000, in order to promote the implementation at all levels of mid- to long-term strategiestoenable societies and communities in disaster-prone areas to become resilient to the negative effects of natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters. The ISDR Inter-agency Task Force and its Secretariat are expected to support activities carried out by UN and non-UN entities that will reduce the vulnerability and risks related to natural hazards while promoting a culture of prevention.

Despite these considerable achievements, however, there are still many challenges and shortcomings that need to be addressed if the international community is to effectively deal with the increasing threat posed by the impact of natural disasters on societies, particularly in developing countries. Examples follow:

• There is still a tendency to assume that the promotion of cooperative scientific and technical programmes would alone lead to progress in dealing with natural disasters.
  
  
• Systematic prevention and mitigation measures have not yet been accorded the same levels of attention, as were accorded relief and response mechanisms.
  
  
• The majority of natural hazards are dealt with by national and local authorities and entities such as NGOs and national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies who carry the burden of responding to the vast majority of natural hazards, but in many cases the work done at local level needs to be supported more. Not enough effective action has been undertaken to strengthen capacities at the local level.
  
  
• Attention to reduction measures has not yet become an integral part of development planning and analysis. A number of UN agencies such as UNDP, UNICEF, WFP and others are involved in a range of response, preparedness and mitigation activities. There is, however, need for policy coherence and concerted, broader strategy to address the problems commensurate with the challenges posed.

In light of these, the UN in consultation with all interested actors involved in disaster reduction, should develop a comprehensive action plan to:

• Incorporate and operationalize disaster risk management analysis into poverty reduction, sustainable development and environmental strategies.
  
  
• Support more vigorously capacity development at national and local levels to deal with disaster risk reduction, response and recovery.
  
  
• Examine coherence between the various UN departments and agencies in light of the need to operationalize disaster risk management.

After this brief overview and turning now to INSARAG, I am very much aware, and appreciative, of the contribution made by dedicated international urban search and rescue teams, such as those represented by people participating in this meeting for the Americas region. Not only do you save human lives at risk through your commitment, bravery, dedication, technical expertise, you also deliver an important message to those in need of life-saving assistance that they are not alone and are not forgotten.

In particular, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for the work accomplished during more than one decade by INSARAG in promoting international cooperation in this area. Since its humble beginning when a small group of experts came together after the Armenian earthquake to discuss ways and means to improve international search and rescue assistance, INSARAG has grown into an established network of professionals and disaster response organizations from over 60 countries today.

The strength of INSARAG lies increasingly in bringing together representatives from disaster-prone countries as well as from countries that have been traditionally providing assistance. In this respect, I welcome the establishment of INSARAG's three regional groups; Asia/pacific, the Americas and Europe/Africa, and the rapid expansion in their activities under the guidance of the INSARAG Steering Committee and the leadership of its Chairman. The envisaged networking of the three regional groups is very much welcome since it represents a major step forward in deepening global cooperation in this area.

More specifically on the Americas region, I would like to commend the efforts made during the last two years by this regional group. The translation into Spanish of the INSARAG Website will enable all countries in the region access to the vast body of knowledge internationally available. The identification and establishment of focal points in governments throughout the region is another significant step in promoting effectiveness and harmonization in disaster response. Mr. Paul Bell, Chairman of the Americas regional group, deserves a high praise for having been the force behindtheses developments over the last twelve months.

I wish to mention the INSARAG Guidelines because a preliminary survey recently carried out by the Secretariat gives us some reasons for concern, in that the internationally agreed-upon standards contained in the Guidelines in the provision of international urban search and rescue assistance are not as widely known or implemented as one would have liked. We need to make further efforts in this regard, so that the limited search and rescue resources that are available at any one time are utilized to the maximum extent possible and in a most efficient manner. Another important aspect, in this respect, is the central role that the affected country plays to render the assistance provided by international urban search and rescue efficient and effective. The basic importance of key issues, such as the facilitation of entry and stay of international rescuers, their search dogs and materials, the utilization of air space or the provision of basic support services, need to be emphasized. As recommended repeatedly by the experts of INSARAG, these Guidelines need to be disseminated and used more widely, and all players, governmental or non-governmental, are encouraged to adopt and respect them.

Let me in this context refer to the plan for a draft resolution on international search and rescue to be presented to the next session of the GA. Since the beginning of 2001, OCHA together with a group of concerned countries have worked on a legal framework for international urban search and rescue assistance. However, as a result of consultations involving over 40 countries, a consensus emerged that a UN GA resolution would be preferable to a legally binding international convention, and action should be taken to initiate the process. A draft resolution entitled "Improving Urban Search and Rescue" would be introduced during the 57th session of the GA and Turkey has been designated to lead this process. It is expected that, as a first step, the Turkish Mission will convene an information meeting in early June in New York and that consultations on the draft resolution would start in September. I have appointed, as focal points in this process, Messrs. Arjun Katoch and Piero Calvi-Parisetti, in OCHA Geneva, and Mr. Carlos Monteiro Pereira, in OCHA New York. Mr. Dewey-Perks, of the Fairfax Country Fire and Rescue Department, has also been asked to provide the practioner's perspective at the information meeting in June. As you can see, throughout the process, OCHA intends to work closely with Turkey and other interested countries to provide the necessary technical and secretarial support.

I would like to conclude by noting that the work done by INSARAG in developing standards and methodologies, and de facto redefining the principles of coordination in earthquake response is indeed pioneering and I trust it is constructive to say the least for all those engaged in discussing improvement of cooperation and coordination in various responses to natural disasters and complex emergency situations.

I encourage you all to continue to work based on the excellent track record achieved so far and look forward to hearing further encouraging news in the near future.

Thank you.