G7 Foreign and Development Ministers Meeting: Our reaction
Heavy rainfall caused Nigeria’s two main rivers – the Niger and the Benue – to burst their banks. The resulting disaster caused almost 200 deaths, hundreds more injured and 200,000 displaced. Credit: Corrie Butler / IFRC
The G7 Foreign and Development Ministers meeting concluded yesterday with the release of a full read out of Ministerial commitments from the meeting.
In reaction to paragraph 82, which covers agreements made on Disaster Risk Financing, Daniel Clarke, Director of the Centre for Disaster Protection said:
“As communities grapple with the fallout of covid-19, it is clear the world needs a smarter system for paying for crises that looks forward not back. We welcome the recognition by G7 Foreign and Development Ministers that more international aid should be in place and ready to go before disasters strike, but the G7 should go even further. Pre-arranged funding could be the primary way the international community pays for crises by 2030. This would reduce the cost of disasters by delivering lifesaving support the moment trouble arises, while improving community preparation and resilience efforts.
“The pandemic has been the greatest moment of shared suffering the world has seen since the Second World War. As they did then, our leaders must meet this moment with unprecedented resolve and ambition. G7 Foreign Ministers have brought this issue to the table, it’s now time for the Leader’s summit to agree clear solutions.”
The Centre for Disaster Protection is leading the Crisis Lookout Coalition, which has united over 40 expert organisation and individuals to call on G7 Leaders to:
Predict crises better by creating a new ‘Crisis Lookout’ function to increase engagement with risk information and support the prioritisation of crises globally, regionally, and nationally.
Prepare response better by agreeing to make pre-arranged finance the primary way to pay for crises, so that funding gets where it is needed faster, with greater impact.
Protect vulnerable people better by supporting an initial group of ‘pathfinder’ countries to ensure that we ‘leave no one behind’ through better prediction of, and coordinated protection from, crises.
For more information visit: https://www.crisislookout.org