The world's first global champion will encourage leaders to invest more in disaster risk reduction
BANGKOK (AlertNet) – Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be officially appointed as the first global champion for reducing the risk of disasters, the United Nations’ disaster reduction agency UNISDR announced Monday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will formally recognise Yudhoyono’s new role on Nov. 19 at the fourth summit between the United Nations and regional bloc ASEAN in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the statement added.
As the world’s first “Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction”, he will promote the importance of taking actions to reduce the risks of disasters, especially with regards to school and hospital safety, and encourage political leaders in other countries to increase their investment in disaster risk reduction.
Yudhoyono took office two months before Indonesia was hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The northern province of Aceh bore the brunt of the disaster with 166,000 people dead or missing and more than half a million homeless.
He has been credited with turning the international blueprint for disaster risk reduction - the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 - into a national plan.
Indonesia adopted a new disaster risk reduction law in 2007 and has recently increased by tenfold its national budget for disaster risk reduction – from $2.14 million in 2010 to $21.4 million in 2011.
In 2008, UNISDR appointed Filipino senator Loren Legarda as the Asia Pacific champion for disaster risk reduction.
(Editing by Alex Whiting)
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