The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 shifts the focus from managing disasters to managing risks. Such a shift requires a better understanding of risk in all its dimensions of hazards, exposure and vulnerability; a disaster risk governance that ensures disaster risk is factored into planning and development at all levels across all sectors; and cost-benefit analysis to support prioritization of investments in disaster risk reduction (DRR) for long-term resilience.
The Sendai Framework emphasizes the role of science and technology. It calls to prioritize the development and dissemination of science-based risk knowledge, methodologies and tools, science and technology work on DRR through existing networks and research institutions and strengthened interface between science and policy to support all four priority areas: understanding disaster risk; disaster risk governance; investing in DRR for resilience; and enhancing disaster preparedness for response and to build back better. This is envisaged to be done with support of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAG). A Science and Technology Roadmap to Support the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was agreed at the UNISDR Science and Technology Conference in January 2016. The Roadmap has been subsequently revised in 2019 to enhance coherence with related global processes and facilitate its implementation by translating the recommendations to specific commitments and means of implementation. Further, the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (May 2017, Cancun, Mexico) highlighted the need to ‘bridge the gap between science and technology and policy-making to ensure that the strategies required by 2020 are sound, including that they anticipate emerging risk patterns’.