Dear Excellencies, Dear Delegates,
First of all, let me thank the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the Special Representative for this opportunity to discuss and relaunch our commitment towards the 2030 horizon, also through the Political declaration that we have adopted this morning.
And we speak these words in this important Assembly while as you all know in Italy a chain of extremely intense multiple events has hit the Emilia Romagna region causing severe damage and loss of lives.
Even more so, we are here today to talk about disaster risk reduction as fundamental part of the social and economic development of communities and an essential building block for a sustainable future.
In Italy, we have a solid legislative framework for the entire risk management cycle and we have developed consistent and effective risk governance plans, which are key to the proper and full use of available financial resources.
Furthermore, in risk prevention strategies and actions, involvement of all public and private actors is essential to agree on short, medium and long-term objectives.
In this respect, the relationship between the decision-making process and science, with a multi-risk approach, is crucial, especially when we talk about prevention and understanding disaster risk.
We have more than 30 years of experience in this field. It is precisely within this context that Italy has developed effective multi-hazard Early Warning systems over the years. And if we sadly can count the victims of the recent floods, on the other side countless is the impact of prevention in terms of human lives saved.
I also want to emphasize how important effective communication is, to inform the population on disaster and risk scenarios on their territories. We have been doing this for years, with the active involvement of local volunteers.
With respect to investments in active risk reduction policies, Italy, since 2010, has adopted regulations to promote seismic prevention and actions to reduce the vulnerability.
It is clear that the volume of investments needed to generate a real impact on risk reduction is too high to be covered only by public finance resources. Private capital must be brought onboard as well.
When it comes to Building Back Better, in practice it has already been adopted for years during the reconstruction phase.
Italy is also strongly engaged in international cooperation activities in the area of disaster risk reduction. Prevention, inclusiveness, ownership and innovation are our keywords.
Our efforts focus on reinforcing local capacities, through training and effective Early warning and Early Action systems – in line with the global “Early Warning for All” initiative launched by the Secretary General last year.
In conclusion, the Sendai Framework has been for our system a great vector for re-thinking and channeling many of our disaster risk reduction strategies and actions. And we are here today to re-commit for the full implementation of this powerful instrument.
Thank you.
