One Year After Sendai – What The World Can Learn from Armenia

Devastation from the Mar. 1, 2011 tsunami that swept through Yotukura fishing village. Credit: Suvendrini Kakuchi/IPSBy Armen ChilingaryanYEREVAN, ARMENIA, Mar 18 2016 (IPS)Armenia is prone to natural disasters. Eight out of every 10 citizens are likely to experience a natural disaster at some point during their lifetimes – an earthquake, landslide, hailstorm or flooding. Each year, the country incurs $33 million in damage from such disasters. As a Member State of the United Nations, Armenia joined the Hyogo Framework for Action in 2005, which brought a common understanding, at the global level, of what is needed to minimize the destruction caused by natural disasters.Immediately after joining this global call, Armenia began to shift its approach from providing humanitarian relief to reducing risk. More than ten years down the line, the country has made every effort to become a safer place to live.Here’s how. After independence in the early 1990s, many communities in Armenia didn’t have working drainage systems, mudflow channels and soil dams. They now do, thanks to the leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which pushed for stronger and more conscious urban planning.In addition, unlike many countries at the time, there was no system in place – neither at national nor at community level – to monitor incoming disasters or coordinate the response once they occurred.This changed when, in 2010, Armenia set up a national platform and in 2012 a strategy for d...

Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - March 18, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Armen Chilingaryan Tags: Development & Aid Environment Featured Global Global Governance Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news