1219 | 345 | Limitations of measuring resilience through SFDRR – is IDRM the answer? | Ronja Winkhardt-Enz and Benni Thiebes
The climate crisis, extreme weather events, and disasters are becoming increasingly tangible for many people around the world. To address multiple challenges like these, the international community has agreed on different frameworks like the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR). Adopted in 2015, it plays a central role in the field of disaster risk reduction. The overarching goal of SFDRR is to increase the commitment of society as a whole. This applies to the reduction and prevention of disasters; therefore it focusses on 4 major priorities and 7 global targets. For each target, sets of indicators are used to measure the progress. 2023 marks the point of the Mid Term Review. The goals achieved so far are not in proportion to the time left. The use of indicators, although seemingly straightforward, is not without challenges. Firstly the goals of SFDRR are global, thus, improvements in one country are potentially outweights by shortcomings in another country. Secondly the necessary statistics required for the indicators are in many instances not readily available. Thirdly reflecting on the broad understanding of resilience as a capacity to learn, adapt and transform from disasters, such qualitative improvements are not directly reflected by statistics. There is a need to complement the current indicator set with a more qualitative and holistic approach implemented at the local level, which allows space for learning processes. One approach to solving this is with integrated disaster risk management (IDRM). With this complex and dynamic societal process of all actors involved, effective and efficient measures can be taken in a coordinated manner to prevent disasters and, in case of their occurrence, to avert harm and ensure the well-being of the people at risk under dynamically changing conditions. Current limitations of measuring resilience through SFDRR will be presented to then show opportunities of IDRM to foster and increase the overall resilience.
Ronja Winkhardt-Enz and Benni Thiebes
German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV)
ID Abstract: 345