Enhanced Institutional Monitoring And Reporting For The Sendai Framework On Disaster Risk Reduction

With the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control issued in 2013 and the commitment to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, Viet Nam took steps toward enhanced disaster risk reduction and recovery. Despite these positive steps, monitoring indicators and reporting systems on disaster risk reduction did not meet the standards of the Sendai framework’s requirements.

The UN in Viet Nam planned technical support to enhance the national monitoring and reporting capacity of the Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VDMA), the assigned agency for coordinating Sendai Framework implementation in MARD. Spearheaded by MARD’s Vice Minister Hoang Van Thang and with the UN’s advice and technical support, a task force within the VDMA developed a voluntary review on “Viet Nam’s progress toward the Sendai Framework and recommendations on the way forward” by analysing and synthesising updated information available in various sectoral reports. Attending the 2018 Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Viet Nam’s multi-sectoral delegation, led by MARD’s Vice Minister Thang, disseminated this voluntary review, reinforcing Viet Nam’s national commitment on DRR and motivating concrete actions for improvement of its DRR system.

The Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience joint results group provided technical assistance during the course of the Ministerial Conference, drawing from the expertise across the UN in Viet Nam, to prepare Viet Nam’s delegation to this regional event, including quality assurance of the review paper. This reporting was voluntary and self-motivated by Viet Nam based on the Sendai-guided indicators. A representative from Viet Nam Women’ Union was also supported to participate in the Conference and raise gender issues and share country experience on promoting women’s leadership and participation in DRR.

As a result of UN’s joint technical and advocacy efforts, the advocacy paper prepared for the review was disseminated at the Conference and welcome by various participants, marking the first reporting document on the Sendai framework for Viet Nam. The development of this paper helped MARD and the VDMA, the main drivers of country’s DRR system, and other government agencies (MPI and Viet Nam Women’s Union) to reduce gaps in currently available information for Sendai monitoring and reporting. The key government officials working in DRR have improved their understanding of the priority areas of the Sendai’s targets and reinforced Viet Nam’s commitment to implement the Sendai framework and DRR-related SDG targets. After the 2018 Conference, the MARD Vice Minister guided VDMA to revise the draft National Strategy on Disaster Risk Reduction towards 2030 and vision 2050, with a new focus on indicator selection aligned with Sendai and related SDG targets and to develop a dedicated decree on disaster recovery.