Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

Also known as: Sendai Framework · Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030)

Definition

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 is the United Nations agreement that sets the global agenda for preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk, adopted by UN Member States on March 18, 2015 at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan. It was the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, and its people-centered approach assigns primary responsibility for disaster risk reduction to each state, with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) tasked to support implementation, monitor progress, and report. The Framework is organized around four priorities for action — Understanding disaster risk; Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction — and around seven global targets whose progress is measured through a set of 38 indicators. (UNDRR)

The Framework was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in June 2015 as the successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015, and its seven targets commit states, by 2030, to substantial reductions in global disaster mortality and in the number of affected people, reduced direct economic loss relative to global GDP and reduced damage to critical infrastructure, more countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies, enhanced international cooperation to developing countries, and increased availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information. For the Philippines — regularly ranked among the most disaster-prone nations on earth and tested by events such as Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) and Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) — the Sendai Framework is the international frame within which the domestic system built by Republic Act No. 10121 operates and reports. (Wikipedia)

Identities

Authority	Value
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sendai_Framework
Wikidata	Q22907841
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ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
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Google Scholar	https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Sendai+Framework%22
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Also Known As

Sendai Framework
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030)

Examples and Analogies

From plan to scoreboard: the Hyogo Framework asked governments to act along five priorities; the Sendai Framework added a measurable scoreboard — seven global targets verified through 38 indicators — the diplomatic equivalent of moving from a mission statement to a results framework.
Four priorities as one cycle: understanding risk feeds stronger governance, which channels investment into resilience, which makes preparedness and “Build Back Better” recovery possible — each priority is the input to the next.
A mirror for the Philippine system: the four Sendai priorities map readily onto the four statutory thematic areas of RA 10121 — prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and rehabilitation and recovery — so that a barangay disaster council executing the local law is, in effect, executing the global framework.
Verified reference points:
March 18, 2015: adopted by Member States at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan
June 2015: endorsed by the UN General Assembly
38 indicators: the indicator set against which the seven global targets are monitored
2015–2030: the Framework’s operative period, following the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015

Usage Scenarios

1. Anchoring National Law and Plans to the Global Framework

Philippine planners use the Sendai Framework as the reference standard for the national system: RA 10121, signed on May 27, 2010, requires the state to adhere to universal norms and standards of humanitarian assistance, directs the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to coordinate the country’s obligations under disaster management treaties and incorporate them into national frameworks and plans, and obliges internationally supported programs to align with national policies and international agreements. (LawPhil)

2. Reporting Through the Sendai Framework Monitor

Member states, the Philippines included, self-report progress against the seven global targets through the Sendai Framework Monitor, UNDRR’s online monitoring tool built around the 38 indicators, with the DesInventar Sendai disaster-loss data sub-system supporting the creation and maintenance of the national loss databases the reports require. (Sendai Framework Monitor)

3. Localizing Targets in a High-Risk Archipelago

Local governments translate global targets — fewer deaths, fewer affected families, protected infrastructure and services — into the concrete instruments of the Philippine system: hazard maps, evacuation plans, pre-positioned relief, the Local DRRM Fund, and the early warning chains of PAGASA and PHIVOLCS.

Strategies

Treat disaster risk reduction as a state responsibility executed across the whole disaster cycle, not a humanitarian afterthought — the premise shared by the Sendai priorities and the four thematic areas of Philippine law.
Invest in risk-informed development: critical infrastructure, health and education services, and land use are decided long before a typhoon forms, which is why “investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience” is a priority rather than a slogan.
Institutionalize measurement: maintain disaster loss accounting so that mortality, affected people, and economic loss can actually be reported against the seven targets.
Use preparedness and “Build Back Better” to compress the distance between response and recovery, rebuilding so that the next event does not repeat the last one’s losses.
Pair national strategies with local execution, the architecture RA 10121 already provides through its parallel councils from the national down to the barangay level.

Security and Safety Measures

Multi-hazard early warning systems and access to disaster risk information, the subject of the Framework’s seventh global target, are treated as core protective infrastructure.
Disaster loss accounting through DesInventar Sendai gives governments an auditable record of mortality, affected people, and economic loss, disciplining both planning and reporting.
International cooperation, the sixth global target, channels technical and financial support to developing countries for building resilience.
National and local disaster risk reduction strategies — the fifth global target — embed safety in standing institutional arrangements rather than ad hoc response.
In the Philippines, the statutory penalties of RA 10121 for diverting relief, illegal solicitation, and tampering with hazard monitoring equipment protect the integrity of the safety system the Framework presupposes.

Historical Context

The Sendai Framework’s lineage runs through the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015, adopted at the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, from January 18 to 22, 2005 — the first plan to explain, describe, and detail the work required from all sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses, built on five priorities for action. (Wikipedia — Hyogo)

The Philippines entered the Sendai era with its statutory system already in place: RA 10121 (2010) had replaced the Presidential Decree No. 1566 regime and organized the four thematic areas, councils, and funds described in this wiki’s entry on disaster risk reduction and management. In February 2017, the Philippines and five other countries volunteered to pilot the monitoring of the Sendai Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals together, with participants in a Manila workshop (February 8–10, 2017) organized by the UNDRR Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the Philippine Office of Civil Defense concluding that monitoring should integrate disaster risk reduction, climate change, and sustainable development indicators; the same discussions were blunt about the stakes, with the OCD’s then-director for operations, Josefa Parcasio, saying the Philippines had learned “bitter lessons” from Typhoon Haiyan and that implementing the Hyogo Framework “is no longer enough” to prepare the country. (PreventionWeb)

Challenges and Controversies

The Measurement Burden

Monitoring 38 indicators and maintaining a disaster loss database demands statistical capacity that many local governments do not have; the credibility of the seven targets depends on the weakest local loss record feeding the national report.

The Gap Between Framework and Outcomes

The Philippine experience under the predecessor Hyogo Framework — culminating in the Haiyan casualty toll — demonstrated that adopting an international framework does not by itself reduce mortality; UNDRR’s own reporting on the Philippines framed Hyogo-era gains as insufficient for a country of the Philippines’ exposure, which is the sobering baseline against which Sendai implementation is judged.

Localization From Global Targets to Barangay Practice

A global agreement adopted in Sendai must be executed by barangay disaster councils with five-percent local funds and uneven capability; the Framework depends on domestic law and local institutions to convert its targets into practice, and where local capacity is thin, the targets remain aspirational.