H.E. Mr. Mitch Fifield, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations,
H.E. Mr. Arrmanatha C. Nasir, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations,
Excellencies and colleagues,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the G77 and China. The Group of the 77 and China, would like to express its condolences and solidarity with the peoples of Türkiye and Syria, for the impact of an earthquake that has shocked the entire world. The Group also express its solidarity with the Chilean people who have faced the consequences of forest fires in recent days.

At the outset, allow me to congratulate you, Excellencies, for your appointment as co-facilitators to conduct the intergovernmental consultations on the political declaration to be adopted by the High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework, in May 2023. The G77 and China reaffirms its commitment to engage constructively with a view to reach a consensual, concise, action-oriented and meaningful political declaration.

The Group also extends its appreciation to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction for its preparation of the Report and those countries that undertook national voluntary reviews that fed into the recommendations contained in Report. As well as Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the UNDRR Office, for his presentation.

Co-Facilitators,

The issue of DRR is intrinsically linked to the core interests of the Group within the sustainable development domain and has a direct impact on achieving the SDGs, especially in developing countries. The Group notes that the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic has demonstrated the need to better understand risks, with the increasing intensity and frequency of disasters, many of which are exacerbated by climate change and biodiversity loss, posing a significant challenge to developing countries and their capacity to achieve sustainable development. Therefore, we see relevance of the report’s recommendation to support integrated understanding and management of risks across all sectors, where the Group views that the strengthening of systematic coordination, coherence and integration between disaster and health risk management systems could be one area to pursue. We also stress that paragraph 15 of the Sendai Framework defines the scope of the application of the framework.

Despite our best efforts, the Group is concerned that the direct and indirect economic and social impacts of disasters have increased, yet investments in disaster risk reduction and efforts to de-risk investments are inadequate. It is clear from the recommendations that, developing countries require an enabling global environment that fosters greater investment in infrastructure and resilience building, without increasing debt burdens that limit the scope of access to financing. As the Report outlines, addressing the financing gap is imperative.

Developing countries need adequate, sustainable and timely provision of support, including through finance, technology transfer and capacity-building from developed countries and partners tailored to their needs and priorities, as its reflected in the principles of the Sendai Framework. As evidenced in the main findings of the report, ODA related to disaster risk reduction has barely increased. So, the G77 and China will aim at specific recommendations in this regard. The Group highlights the importance of switching from managing disaster and disaster risk to a more preventive approach at all levels.

Furthermore, throughout the Report it is highlighted that the scarcity of quality and accessible data continues to severely inhibit efforts towards remains a challenge to effective disaster risk reduction. Data and the capacity to interpret such data to develop risk-informed decision-making and policy development, especially in developing countries is crucial to ensuring the effective mainstreaming of DRR across various sectors. To this end, the group considers that international cooperation mechanisms should be strengthened, including South-South, and their interrelation with United Nations agencies and funds, within their respective mandates, in order to substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to support national Governments.

Among the recommendations, the Group of 77 and China regrets not seeing the specific needs of developing countries reflected, bearing in mind that they are the most vulnerable group of countries to disasters, which, unfortunately, is evident year after year.

In conclusion, allow me to express the Group´s readiness to participate in a constructive spirit in the consultations of the political declaration to be adopted. We look forward to a rigorous, transparent and inclusive process of intergovernmental negotiations for all delegations, identifying, primarily, the challenges that remain for developing countries in implementing the Sendai framework.

I thank you.