Following a two-day-long marathon negotiation at a UN conference in Japan, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted on Wednesday to improve protection for people against disasters.
“We had tough negotiations and at the end we could include many of our issues the way we wanted it to appear in the framework,” said a Bangladeshi diplomat who took part in the process.
Since October last year, Bangladesh stayed involved in negotiations for the risk reduction framework, which would replace the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.
The Sendai Framework incorporated international cooperation in a very comprehensive manner that covers primarily the financing for disaster risk reduction (DRR), technology transfer and capacity building, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
The issue of technology transfer survived the negotiations and appeared in several paragraphs in the final text as one of the important components of international cooperation, he said.
Bangladesh also pushed for trans-boundary cooperation, and it was agreed that the cooperation would be done in accordance with the UN Charter, the diplomat added.
The text recognises migrants as important stakeholders in the DRR framework and also their role in the design and implementation of the DRR framework.
It also recognises the critical importance of health care services in the framework including community clinics, which Bangladesh supported, the diplomat said; adding: “Bangladesh also supported the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health.”
In the negotiation, the developed countries opposed any mention of right to development, but Bangladesh along with other developing countries argued to insert a paragraph about it in the text.
“Our strong position made inclusion of right to development in the Sendai Framework possible,” the diplomat said.
The framework is not a legally binding document but it is an inspirational and norm-setting document, he added.