Your Excellency Mr. Csaba Kőrösi, President of the UN General Assembly,

Honorable Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms. Mami Mizutori,

Distinguished Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

the risk landscape has changed drastically since the adoption of the Sendai Framework in 2015 and “risk creation is outstripping risk reduction”.

We have seen the rise of disasters worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic, devastating floods and droughts and rising conflicts have shown: we are vulnerable!

Therefore, the objective of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is more relevant than ever before.

Nevertheless, the Midterm Review showed that we haven’t reached the targets set by the Sendai Framework yet. In the face of the global climate crisis, our time is clearly running out.

We need to improve risk-informed planning and decision-making in our administrations. Strengthening these capacities will reduce risks from the outset and enhance our preparedness for extreme events. We need to address fragile contexts better as these, by far, suffer most from disaster occurrences. Germany will continue to support partners and people in need through humanitarian assistance as well as development cooperation. Those most affected by disasters need to be systemically strengthened with transformative recovery and preventive approaches, facilitating anticipatory action and transitional development assistance.

At the national level, we have reached a significant milestone in our implementation of the Sendai Framework and adopted the German Resilience Strategy in 2022 incorporating a holistic and whole-of-government approach on disaster resilience. Looking ahead to 2030, implementing the Resilience Strategy will be our focus. This includes strengthening our civil protection systems to be better prepared and to provide earlier warnings, as well as stepping up our climate adaptation action.

All our efforts have taught us that resilience is only achieved jointly. We need to include all of society, as well as the whole-of-government.

Only when we work together and learn from the different experiences, we can improve the resilience of us all!