A high level government delegation from the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM) will attend the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction forum which commences this coming Monday, May 22 ending Friday, May 26, at Cancun in Mexico.

The four-person delegation will include the Minister for MECDM Samuel Manetoali, his Permanent Secretary Dr Melchior Mataki, National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) Director, Loti Yates and the Acting Director of Solomon Islands Meteorological Services, Lloyd Tahani.

Organised by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), the biennial forum is the most important international forum dedicated to the disaster risk reduction agenda, and this will be the first time it has been staged outside Geneva.

Several thousand representatives of governments, international organisations and civil society networks are expected to attend the global conference and discuss how to reduce loss of life and economic losses from disasters caused by man-made and natural hazards, the most important multilateral forum in its kind.

MECDM Permanent Secretary Dr Melchior Mataki informed Island Sun yesterday that the forum will cover both disaster management and meteorological aspects of disasters.

“The forum provides the first opportunity since the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to take stock of implementation and accelerate progress towards the seven Sendai Framework global targets and the disaster risk reduction targets of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Dr Melchior said.

“The Global Platform is the primary forum to assess progress on implementation; share good practice and knowledge; forge partnerships; and promote the integration of disaster risk reduction across relevant sectors.”

Dr Melchior said Minister Manetoali will be a panelist in the Forum of ACP Group of States on disaster risk reduction in particular on the Solomon Islands disaster risk management programmes funded under EDF10, besides that, he will also report back on Solomon Islands progress and challenges on the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction.

MECDM Permanent Secretary Dr Melchior shall be a panelist, the only one from the Pacific region in one of the four plenary sessions of the Forum on National and Local Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy on Solomon Islands experiences.

Dr Melchior further informed this paper that Guidance on Plenaries and where the outcomes of the forum will be taken to the Plenaries and Special Sessions which will provide substantial input into the Global Platform Chair’s Summary.

“The Chair’s Summary will be submitted to the President of the Economic and Social Council as a contribution to the 2017 High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF) to be held in New York in July.

“It will inform deliberations on this year’s HLPF theme “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world” to ensure a risk-informed approach is at the centre of the follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals.” PS Dr Melchior said.

He said the four Plenaries and two Special Sessions will take the form of an interactive panel discussion.

“Each event will include between three and five panellists, three co-Chairs including two government representatives and one stakeholder, and some will include discussants,” he adds.