Americas & Caribbean: the resilience-building challenge for the next decades

Organized by:
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean
Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA)
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO)
Coordination Center for the Prevention of Disasters in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC)

 11:00-12:30 GMT-5
 1 November 2021
 High Level Session 1
 Virtual

The COVID-19 pandemic, a global disaster of epic proportions, has transformed our world affecting millions of people. It has devastated global economic and financial markets and thrown millions into poverty.

The social impact has also been high, particularly for women, children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. It has changed the way we live, interact, behave, work, and even die. This session takes place seven years after the adoption of the Sendai Framework, just over two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and one year before the inter-governmental midterm review of the Sendai Framework scheduled for 2023. This session presents a unique and timely opportunity to reflect on and take stock of the most salient challenges from the perspective of different stakeholders in the region for accelerating the implementation of the Sendai Framework for resilience building, including in specific country contexts.

The session will focus on achieving the following:

• Identify difficulties or constraints faced by various countries and stakeholders based on past experience to prioritize actions to improve resilience.
• Provide key elements for consideration on how to improve disaster risk governance and risk management systems.
• Highlight how international solidarity and cooperation can help solve these issues locally and nationally and recommit to accelerating progress toward disaster risk reduction and the SDGs.

Speakers

Moderator

Elizabeth Riley
Executive Director, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA)

Panelists

Epsy Campbell Barr
Vice-President and Foreign Minister, Costa Rica

María Noel Vaeza
Regional Director of UN Women- Latin America and the Caribbean

David Applegate
Associate Director for Natural Hazards Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Director, U.S. Geological Survey

Myriam Urzúa
Secretary of Integral Risk Management and Civil Protection of Mexico City, Mexico

Dário Jorge Giolo Saadi
Mayor of Campinas, Brazil