Virginia Murray
Public Health Consultant, Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England
The Sendai Framework – how it is promoting research and development, exchange of knowledge and deployment of information systems for crisis management
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 has resulted in a shift away from managing crises to proactively reducing their risks. With the recent synchronous adoption of landmark UN agreements the Sendai Framework with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), COP21’s Paris Climate Conference, World Humanitarian Summit and Habitat III have all created a rare but significant opportunity to build coherence across different but overlapping policy areas. Taken together these frameworks make for a more complete agenda as building resilience requires action spanning climate change, development, health, humanitarian and disaster risk reduction areas. This coherence will serve to strengthen existing risk fragility and resilience frameworks for multi hazard assessments, and aim to develop a dynamic, local, preventive, and adaptive urban governance system at the global, national, and local levels. The Sendai Framework has identified four actions with a focus on information systems and knowledge management in much of the agreement. Two are listed below:
- To guide action at the regional level through agreed regional and subregional strategies and mechanisms for cooperation for disaster risk reduction, as appropriate, in the light of the present Framework, in order to foster more efficient planning, create common information systems and exchange good practices and programmes for cooperation and capacity development, in particular to address common and transboundary disaster risks; (paragraph 28a)
- To promote and improve dialogue and cooperation among scientific and technological communities, other relevant stakeholders and policymakers in order to facilitate a science policy interface for effective decision-making in disaster risk management; (paragraph 27 h)
The agreements represent a major turning point in the global efforts to tackle existing and future challenges in all countries. In order to support UN member states to implement these frameworks, the need to promote research and development, exchange of knowledge and deployment of information systems for crisis management is key and examples of such implementation will be shared.
Biography:
Professor Virginia Murray qualified in medicine and has extensive experience in health protection by being actively involved in chemical and extreme event incident preparedness, response and recovery.
Currently she is the Public Health Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction for Public Health England where she has been actively engaged in providing health, science and technology support for the development and implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, one of the three 2015 UN landmark agreements via international networks addressing implementation science in data related activities such as the Data project of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) and the disaster risk reduction flagship project for the Committee on Data of the International Council for Science (CODATA).
