Global Platform 2019 Risk Award
Global Platform 2019
Risk Award speech – Mami Mizutori
17 May 2019
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen -
It is my honour to welcome you to the 2019 RISK Award ceremony.
This award is given every two years to operational projects in the field of risk reduction and disaster management and is supported by the Munich Re Foundation.
Since the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, there has been a steady and welcome shift away from a focus on disaster response, and towards risk reduction and resilience.
At the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction we and our partners celebrate this trend and showcase the innovative ideas that further it.
This week at the sixth Global Platform we have heard time and again about the benefit of investing before a disaster strikes, rather than responding to its effects.
The theme, “The Resilience Dividend” goes beyond the economic cost of ignoring risk and highlights the social and environmental opportunities of focusing on risk-informed development and building resilient communities.
The theme of this year’s RISK Award is “Coastal Resilience”. Much of the focus on the effects of climate change is around sea level rises and changes in sea level temperature.
Sitting in a conference centre between two mountain ranges it is hard to imagine the real impact that these risks could have on our way of life.
Roughly 40% of our global population lives within 100km of a coastline and many more depend directly on the sea for their livelihood and food sources.
Coastal communities are already feeling the brunt of climate change and the impacts of natural hazards such as storms and tsunamis and these are increasing in both frequency and intensity.
But what we are also learning here is that change does not happen in silos or in straight lines. Non-linear change brings new threat patterns. The choices we make are creating new, emerging and larger risks.
The struggle to overcome this risk is a collective one. We can no longer ignore the disasters taking place on the other side of the world and the impacts will no longer be felt only where they occur.
That is why, ladies and gentlemen, projects such as that/those being recognized today, are so important, and their impact will be felt, not only in the immediate community but also by every single one of us, whether we realise it or not.
I would like to sincerely thank the Munich Re Foundation for their ongoing support, not only to this award but in the overall efforts to increase community resilience and contribute to a better, safer world for people and planet.
Thank you.