Organization of American States Summits of the Americas
     
Follow-up and Implementation: Mandates
  

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DISASTER MANAGEMENT: Early Warning Systems
 MANDATES

  1. Leverage and develop inclusive digital tools in providing immediate response to climate events, disasters, and other emergencies, while strengthening resilience and decision-making based on empirical evidence. (Regional Agenda for Digital Transformation, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).

  1. To accelerate measures on climate change adaptation, taking into account different national circumstances, we intend to:

    • d. Redouble efforts to incorporate climate risks in plans, policies, operations, and sectoral budgets in order to generate resilience in strategic sectors and reduce vulnerability to climate change;

    • f. Enhance and promote delivery of climate information services, decision-making support tools, and early warning systems to improve understanding and response to climate impacts and minimize loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change across sectors and different scales. (Our Sustainable Green Future, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).

  1. To strengthen and integrate regional cooperation networks to assist governments and for the building of resilience by means of using appropriate methodologies to:

    • c. Monitor in real time emergency disaster preparedness.(Our Sustainable Green Future, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).

  1. We commit to improving regional cooperation and strengthening our national technical and institutional capacity for disaster reduction, prevention, preparedness and response, rehabilitation, resilience, risk reduction, impact mitigation, and evaluation. We will strengthen our monitoring, surveillance, communications and early warning systems and will encourage the sharing of information and research on disasters. In this regard, we recognise the importance of our active participation in the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) as tools to increase access to information and facilitate coordinated action, as well as in the regional meetings on international mechanisms for humanitarian assistance and the Inter-American Network for Disaster Mitigation, as appropriate. (Declaration of Port of Spain, 2009)

  1. We note with concern the increased intensity of natural and man-made disasters and their devastating impact on human lives, infrastructure, and economies in the Hemisphere. We call for action at the national, regional, and international levels to strengthen disaster management programs, including through increased capacity for disaster preparedness, development of early warning systems, risk mitigation and post-disaster recovery, and reconstruction and technical and financial assistance as appropriate, particularly for disaster-prone countries, to reduce the impact of disasters. We also support efforts under way to explore private and public sector involvement in comprehensive approaches to catastrophic risk insurance (Declaration of Mar del Plata, 2005).

  1. To substantially improve the capacity at the national, regional, and hemispheric levels for risk mitigation; to implement cost-effective and robust early warning systems, and to enhance disaster recovery and reconstruction capabilities in collaboration with relevant international and regional institutions. To explore with relevant international and regional institutions the coordinated development of effective public-private catastrophic risk insurance systems. (Plan of Action Mar del Plata, 2005).

  1. We commit to increase cooperation and strengthen the institutions responsible for coordinating and implementing measures to reduce the impact of natural disasters on people and their effect on national development plans, with emphasis on prevention, mitigation, emergency measures, and risk management at all levels (Declaration of Nuevo León, 2004).

  1. We commit to strengthening hemispheric cooperation and national capacities to develop a more integrated approach to the management of natural disasters. We will continue to implement policies that enhance our ability to prevent, mitigate and respond to the consequences of natural disasters. We agree to study measures to facilitate timely access to financial resources to address emergency needs (Declaration of Québec, 2001).

  1. Recognizing the need to develop, implement and sustain shared comprehensive disaster management strategies and programs to reduce the vulnerability of our populations and economies to natural and man made disasters and to maintain or quickly restore minimum levels of consumption, income and production at the household and community levels in the aftermath of disasters, including irregular population settlements; acknowledging in this regard the need to expand the community of stakeholders at the regional, national and local levels engaged in the formulation of early warning systems, the management of risk and response operations in the event of disasters and integrated sustainable development strategies: (Plan of Action Québec, 2001).

  1. Promote the exchange of information on the vulnerability of infrastructure exposed to disasters as well as the early warning capacity, particularly in the border areas of the countries of the Americas, in order to design specific prevention measures in the fields of engineering and legislation with the aim of reducing the socio-economic impact of natural disasters;(Plan of Action Québec, 2001).

  1. Promote the development of telecommunications for humanitarian assistance; actively encourage greater use and interoperability of telecommunications and other technologies and information systems that allow the observation and monitoring of different natural phenomena; use early warning systems such as remote sensing imagery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based data necessary to address and prevent emergencies; promote the compatibility of these systems in the planning and response to emergency operations among governments, specialized agencies, relevant international organizations, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and, in this spirit, consider signing and ratifying, ratifying, or acceding to, as soon as possible and as the case may be, the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations; (Plan of Action Québec, 2001).

 

 
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