January 2013: The UN Task Team for the Post-2015 Development Agenda (UNTT), along with eight UN agencies, has released a new thematic think piece titled “Building resilience to disasters through partnerships.” The paper assesses lessons learned from the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA), and explores the localization and strengthening of partnerships for disaster reduction.

Emphasizing that disaster reduction is “a prerequisite for sustainable development,” the paper credits the HFA with strengthening global cooperation efforts around disaster reduction, but notes challenges for integrating these efforts into development. It highlights the need for national-level platforms of disaster risk reduction and for development of local capacities.

The paper identifies diverse actors crucial to disaster reduction partnerships, including: local governments, science and technology institutions, parliamentarians, interest groups and community practitioners, the private sector and the media. Calling for disaster risk reduction to be mainstreamed in development, environmental, and humanitarian planning, the paper focuses on cross-sectoral participation in a new post-2015 framework, “HFA II.”

It also suggests that implementation of the HFA and other international agreements can be made part of the post-2015 development agenda to gain political legitimacy.

Contributors to the piece include: the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This paper is one of nine new Think Pieces published by the UNTT working group on the global partnership for development beyond 2015. The papers will be synthesized in a report to be published in March 2013. [Publication: Building resilience to disasters through partnerships: Lessons from the Hyogo Framework for action] [UNTT Think Pieces] [UNTT Resources]