Finance, insurance, construction sectors announced joint private sector commitment to tackle disaster vulnerability

A report drawing on a panel at the disaster reduction conference underway in Geneva, from the United Nations International Strategy for International Disaster Reduction: Representatives of the finance, insurance and construction sector at the Global Platform yesterday sounded a call for action on the five essentials for business in disaster risk reduction, in line with the main finding of the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction that losses from disasters are rising faster than gains made through economic growth.

The Global Platform – held in Geneva every two years -- is the world’s main forum for disaster risk reduction, attracting nearly 3,000 participants this year and includes a bigger private sector contingent than the previous Platform. The Platform opened yesterday and ends on Friday, 13 May.

In an announcement to the press, WillisRe, Credit Suisse, Titan America, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group and MunichRe called on fellow members of the private sector to: build partnerships to analyze the root causes of non-resilient activity; leverage private sector expertise in construction, communications, financing, transport and contingency planning; spread knowledge about risk, prediction, forecasting and early warning; assist governments to conduct risk assessments; and help develop standards and procedures for enhancing resilience.

“We commit voluntarily and to the best of our abilities to create awareness within and outside our organizations to identify vulnerability and their root causes in our areas of activity and influence,” said Peter Gruetter, CISCO Internet Business Solutions Group, adding that the group recognized the leading role of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction – established by the United Nations in 2000 to consider actions for reducing risk – and the Hyogo Framework for Action, which is the world’s only internationally-recognized blueprint for disaster risk reduction.

According to a report put together by the United Nations secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, which was launched Tuesday at the 2011 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, disaster-related losses are increasing across all regions, threatening the economies of low- and middle-income countries as well as outpacing wealth gains across many of the world’s more affluent nations…

The caption from Wikimedia Commons reads: "Looking North from Ursuline Academy, showing wrecked Negro High School Building, Galveston, Texas." A hurricane did the wrecking