The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has published a comprehensive report providing a regional review of Europe and Central Asia’s progress in establishing national platforms and coordination mechanisms for disaster risk reduction. The Government Office has coordinated the task force responsible for the report, and the Ministry of the Interior has led this review. It focused on public awareness and preparedness for crises, including natural disasters, terrorist activity, or military conflict.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) highlights the importance of better risk governance, with the state having the primary role. Multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral coordination mechanisms are essential to achieving long-lasting resilience. National platforms for DRR have played a vital role in facilitating policy coherence. However, adaptive governance arrangements that support integrated risk management are necessary to accelerate the implementation of the Sendai Framework towards 2030. Disaster risk reduction must be integrated into development and finance policies, legislation, and national and local planning.
The report acknowledges European efforts to engage Local Authorities in disaster governance. It outlines areas for improved disaster risk governance per the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR) Roadmap 2021–2030.
The report highlights that several significant challenges and gaps exist in national disaster risk reduction. These include a lack of dedicated budget in some countries, limited involvement of non-government stakeholders, insufficient technical capabilities to collect, share, and report disaster loss and damage data, and a need for practical projects, implementation, and monitoring related to DRR and overall disaster resilience. The report also identifies examples of good practices for sharing, such as involving civil society, youth, women, and persons with disabilities (Portugal), private sector representatives (Türkiye), media (Romania), securing a dedicated budget for the management of the national coordination mechanism (France), and engaging local authorities and stakeholders meaningfully (Finland).
Further reading
- Words into Action Guide on Developing National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies (UNDRR, 2019)
- Global Assessment Report Contributing Paper: Boosting systemic risk governance: Perspectives and insights from understanding national systems approaches for dealing with disaster and climate risks (Deubelli et al., 2022)
- Words into Action Guidelines Governance System, Methodologies, and Use of Results, (UNDRR, 2017). This includes the UK National Risk Assessment Case Study (Pg.88)