DISASTER THREATENS WELL-BEING OF KIDS, YOUTH

Madam,

The theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is ‘Empowering the next generation for a resilient future.’ Increasing disasters, many of them driven and exacerbated by climate change, threaten the well-being of children and youth. According to United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), approximately one billion children worldwide are at extremely high risk due to climate impacts, including climate-related disasters. In 2022, the number of children affected by flooding in Chad, Gambia, Pakistan and Bangladesh was the highest in over 30 years. Beyond the risk of death and injury, children in the aftermath of a disaster face cascading impacts such as disruptions in schooling, nutrition, healthcare and protection issues.

To protect children from disasters, countries must consider their vulnerabilities and needs when designing national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. It is equally important that children and youth be empowered and provided ‘the space and modalities to contribute to disaster risk reduction,’ as called for in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.  This also aligns with the calls to action of the Political Declaration of the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework, which called for ‘the full, equal, meaningful and inclusive participation’ of youth and the promotion of ‘a culture of disaster prevention.’

Communities

Empowering children, especially through education, can enable them to protect themselves and to become agents of change in their families and communities by sharing what they learned. This is particularly relevant in the context of the global push to expand early warning systems under the UN Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All initiative. To achieve the goal of the Sendai Framework of reducing global disaster risks and losses, the theme of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) 2024 will be on the role of education in protecting and empowering children for a disaster-free future. The theme is aligned with the upcoming Summit of the Future, where ‘youth and future generations’ will be one of its five priorities.

Call to action

The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2024 calls on countries to harness the education sector to reduce the disaster risks of school-aged children, especially by investing in two key areas:

• Protect children through safe schools: children are entitled to be safe in their schools and this starts with ensuring schools are disaster-resilient and are part of disaster early warning systems.
• Empower for safe children through age-appropriate education to understand and act on the risks they face. This includes building their preparedness to take early action in response to early warnings. Empowered children become agents of change for more resilient communities.

Endorse and implement the Comprehensive School Safety Framework 2022-2030, developed by the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES), which is chaired by UNESCO and UNICEF.

United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

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