Jesse Walter
Advisor for Economic and Social Affairs
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York, New York
November 24, 2020
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Chair. We are pleased to join consensus on this resolution.
The United States strongly supports disaster risk reduction, including through our development assistance efforts and technical cooperation with other nations to improve preparation for and response to disasters.
We would like to clarify our views on several elements in the text. We emphasize the need for effective disaster prevention, preparedness, and resilience-building. President Trump signed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act in October 2018, which provides a larger and more reliable funding stream for U.S. domestic pre-disaster mitigation. The UN system and other relevant institutions and intergovernmental organizations play an important role as enablers in providing support to States, in accordance with national policies, laws and regulations, in the implementation of disaster risk reduction.
In order to be effective, we must take a multi-stakeholder, multi-hazard approach to both domestic and international responses.
Finally, regarding references to COVID-19, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, issues related to sexual and reproductive health, the Paris Agreement, climate change, reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the characterization of trade and technology transfer, we addressed our concerns in our General Statement delivered on November 18.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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