D

espite five days of intensive negotiations, more than 160 participating countries at the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) have found it difficult to reach an agreement on the new international framework for disaster risk reduction to replace the 10-year-old Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA).

Taking place in the northern Japanese city of Sendai, the conference kicked off on Saturday and was initially scheduled to conclude on Wednesday afternoon with an announcement on the new framework, which has been informally dubbed the HFA2.

However, after announcing on Wednesday a series of delays for the closing ceremony, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), the organizer of the conference, announced at 4 p.m. that the ceremony had been officially canceled as negotiators had yet to finalize the HFA2 draft.

Indonesian lead negotiator Roy Rolliansyah Soemirat told The Jakarta Post that the conference'€™s main committee, as of 6 p.m., had been unable to agree on 13 paragraphs of the draft, forcing it to hand over the final draft deliberation to the conference'€™s plenary meeting later in the evening, which had now become the conference'€™s final agenda.

'€œIt would be unfortunate if this conference failed to produce an international framework that can serve as a technical guideline for efforts on disaster risk reduction,'€ he said, adding that Indonesia had no objections to the latest draft.

Assistant to the coordinating minister for human development and culture Willem Rampangilei, a member of the Indonesian delegation, said the delay had occurred due to fierce negotiations among several countries on issues related to common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and international cooperation.

'€œIf a party has to voluntarily give up on a CBDR-related issue, it wants the other party do the same on the other issue as compensation,'€ he said.

Adopted by 168 countries in 2005, the HFA outlines five priorities for action and offers guiding principles and practical means for achieving resilience toward disasters, which cost the world an average of US$300 billion in economic losses annually.

The HFA2 27-page draft, prepared by a preparatory committee before the kick off of the conference, suggests that coordinated measures in disaster risk reduction must address four areas: understanding disaster risk, strengthening legal and policy frameworks to manage disaster risk, investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to '€œbuild back better'€ in post-disaster recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

According to a WCDRR monitoring report published on Monday by the New York-based Earth Negotiations Bulletin, the main source of contention in the deliberation of the CBDR issue is related to '€œthe extent to which climate change can be seen as contributing to the need for enhanced DRR [disaster risk reduction] action'€.

'€œSeveral developed countries stressed that the principle of CBDR should not be evoked in the context of DRR. Developing countries said that CBDR is a central pillar of sustainable development and international law,'€ the report said.

In his keynote speech at the conference'€™s opening on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the new international platform on disaster risk reduction would drive momentum for the third International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in July in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the New York summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda in September; and the Paris climate change summit meeting, or COP 21, in December.

In a press conference held earlier the day, UNISDR spokesperson Denis McClean said the delay had become an indication of how far disaster risk reduction efforts had progressed in the past decade.

'€œPeople are so engaged and committed to the issue,'€ he said.