From Risk to Resilience: Summary of the 2022 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

23-28th May 2022 in Bali, Indonesia—This year’s seventh session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (#GPDRR2022) emphasised the need for action to stop the spiral of increasing climate and disaster impacts and risks. More than 4000 participants from 185 countries gathered at the hybrid event to discuss how to understand and reduce risks to meet imminent economic, social, and environmental challenges in face of increasing global systemic risks. According to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (#GAR2022), presented at the GPDRR, current development pathways are creating risks faster than we can manage them.

Hazards turn into disasters because our human decisions don't take us to reduce vulnerability and exposure. Disasters are in a way or another all human made"

Mami Mizutori, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction at UNDRR


In his video message for the German statement, Niels Annen, the Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), highlighted the premise of understanding risks to make risk-informed decisions and the need to foster coordinated actions across sectors and levels to build resilience. Watch the video here.

At the High-Level Dialogue on “Strengthening disaster and climate risk governance at national and local levels for accelerated progress on SDGs”, Jochen Steinhilber, the Director General for Displacement, Crisis Prevention and Civil Society at the BMZ, noted that “mainstreaming disaster and climate risks into budgeting and development planning is key”. Watch the full panel discussion here.

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Jochen Steinhilber (BMZ) at the high-level dialogue; © GIZ

As the head of the German delegation at the #GPDRR2022, Jochen Steinhilber also met with Mami Mizutori, head of UNDRR, to discuss Germany’s implementation of the Sendai Framework and the topic of DRR in fragile contexts.

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Jochen Steinhilber (BMZ) and Mami Mizutori (UNDRR); © UNDRR

On behalf of the BMZ, Jacqueline Begerow, project lead of the Global Initiative on Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM), participated in the mid-term review on the implementation of the Sendai Framework. She emphasised that each context is different: policies and interventions working in one situation, might create risks in another. This requires continuous gathering of information and learning, and if necessary, readjusting or reversing decisions. She stressed the need to focus on national planning processes as well as fiscal and budgetary plans as they have immense leveraging effects. In the second implementation phase of the Sendai Framework, it is necessary to push for systems that prioritise capacity building for risk-informed decision making.

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Jacqueline Begerow at the mid-term review on the implementation of the Sendai Framework; © GIDRM/GIZ

At the GPDRR Innovation Platform, a collaborative booth on “Understanding Risks, Addressing Complexity, Fostering Resilience – Contributions from Germany” was hosted on behalf of the German Federal Government as well as the Interministerial Working Group Sendai (IMAG Sendai) and commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Gathering various knowledge products by German ministries (BMZ, BMI, AA, BMUV and others), additional actors and organisations (GIZ, UBA, DWD, BBK and others), the booth provided an overview on German action and engagement in the field of disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, and risk-informed development.

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Participants visiting the "Contributions from Germany" booth at the innovation platform; © GIDRM/GIZ

“The Global Platform was organized at a time when the world is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, while facing the growing impacts of the climate emergency. This has been compounded by conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, which has disrupted global supply chains, led to inflation, and threatened food security, further deepening vulnerabilities of people living in the most disaster-prone parts of the world.” (From the Co-Chairs’ Summary: Bali Agenda for Resilience).

“We can—and we must—put our efforts firmly behind prevention and risk reduction, and build a safe, sustainable, resilient and equitable future for all.”

Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary General

Our world turns more complex every day. Risks of conflict and fragility are on the rise and have cascading effects. Communities and administrations in fragile or even volatile context face an additional burden when struck by a disaster. So how can we better support them? We need to put more efforts on the interlinkages between multilateral organisations, development and humanitarian actors as well as local stakeholders for complementary risk-informed development approaches. To safeguard development achievements, we need to reconfigure and adapt governance and financial systems to allow for more risk-informed decision making. In face of the vast overlap between DRM and CCA, more coherence and less fragmentation can avoid duplications and contribute to minimising risks more efficiently and effectively—because at the end, it’s about risks faced by and the vulnerability of communities and individuals.

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German Delegation at the #GPDRR2022; © GIZ

The #GPDRR2022 progressed towards more gender parity and accessibility: “Half of the panellists and 40 percent of participants were women. Over 200 persons with disability actively engaged in panels and in discussion.” (Bali Agenda for Resilience).

The next GPDRR will take place in 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and hosted by alternating member countries, the forum takes place every three years and draws in governmental, research and civil-society actors as well as public and private stakeholders from all over the world to review the progress made in the implementation of the Sendai Framework, share knowledge and discuss innovative approaches regarding DRR. Since 2006, the GPDRR is the key gathering for strategic cooperation and monitoring to implement the goals on disaster risk reduction and management set in the Sendai Framework and other international agendas.

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German booth at the #GPDRR2022; © GIDRM/GIZ

  • Visit the BMZ website on disaster risk management (only in German) here.
  • Visit the GPDRR website for more information on the agenda (videos of the sessions will be uploaded on YouTube).