This document is the opening remarks from the chairman of the 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC) in Davos, Switzerland. It welcomes representatives from the United Nations, European Union, World Bank, and other international organizations to discuss reducing disaster risks and increasing resilience. The chairman explains that the conference aims to provide input on the draft framework to replace the Hyogo Framework for Action, which expires in 2015. Participants are encouraged to share their expertise to develop recommendations for establishing new global strategies and policies around disaster risk reduction and management after 2015. The chairman also thanks the sponsors and partners for their support in organizing this important international event.

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SUNDAY, 24 AUGUST 2014
5TH IDRC DAVOS 2014
THE CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME
Dr. Walter J. Ammann, Chairman IDRC Davos 2014, GRF Davos
Dear Mrs. Margareta WAHLSTROM, Special Representative of the
UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Assistant
Secretary-General, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction. UNISDR in Geneva
Dear Qunli HAN - Director of UNESCO’s Division of Ecological and
Earth Sciences, and Secretary of the Man and the Biosphere
Programme, representing Ms Irina Bokova, the UNESCO Director-
General, Patron of our conference.
Dear Rashid KHALIKOV – Director, United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) - Geneva -
Switzerland
Dear Donato KINIGER-PASIGLI - Head of the Fragile States and
Disaster Response Group - International Labour Office (ILO) -
Geneva - Switzerland
Dear Tarzisius CAVIEZEL, Mayor of the hosting City of Davos

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Dear Ms HARAN, Secretary General of Home Department,
Government of Kerala, India
Dear Risk Award Laureat
Dear representatives of UNEP and UNITAR, the other two of our
patronage organizations
A special welcome to our Turkish delegation headed by Dr. Fuat
Oktay, President of the Disaster and Emergency Management
Presidency (AFAD) at the Turkish Prime Ministry,
And to the delegation from Senegal headed by H.E. Minister
Mangara,
Dear Representatives of the European Union, the World Bank, and
the African Risk Capacity,
Dear representatives of our co-hosting and endorsing
organizations
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great honor and pleasure to warmly welcome you to Davos
and to be – together with my team – your host for the 5th
International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC Davos 2014.

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A special welcome goes to those of you, who have already
participated in previous IDRC conferences. It was your motivating
feedback, which has encouraged us to carry on our efforts to
provide a platform for intensive discussions and advocating for
integrative approaches to reduce risks and to manage and contain
disasters.
…..integrative risk management not only to be seen in the sense of
analysing and assessing the many different risks and disasters
under one umbrella, but in particular also by linking the many
different scientific disciplines to interdisciplinary teams.
The World is currently facing many crises and disasters, be it the
conflicts in the Ukraine, or the Near East, or the Ebola outbreak in
West Africa, just to name a few.
Our conference is not free from being affected by some of these
conflicts and disasters. Due to the Ebola outbreak, it is with great
regret, that the representatives of the World Health Organisation,
and Dr. David Nabarro and his team from the UN System Influenza
Coordination will not be able to attend. David Nabarro has just
being appointed UN Senior Coordinator for Ebola.
Therefore the two organisations had to cancel all the sessions and
special panels organized by them. I would like to apologize on their
behalf.

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On the other side, we got only recently some very interesting new
sessions into our programme.
May I therefore ask you to consult our web-based conference
programme and our daily announcements at the conference
entrance about these and hopefully not to many other additional
cancellations.
The global risk landscape is constantly changing and becoming
more and more complex at an accelerating pace. It is obvious that
our societies have not had the time to adapt to such rapid global
change. Yet we have no choice, but must accept that climate
change will heavily influence global risk patterns, affecting all
aspects of our communities in every region of the world, and
gravely increase humanity’s overall vulnerability to risks.
It is unfortunately a matter of fact that the risk-takers are often the
beneficiaries and externalize the damage and economic losses to
other sectors of our society. Global responsibility and partnership
to cope with these risks and disasters and to lower inequalities is
therefore of utmost importance.
Let me address a few concerns:
Climate change will influence increasingly the intensity and
frequency of meteorological events. Given the increasing losses
from floods and droughts threatening social and economic well-

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being, it is imperative that the occurrence and impact of water-related
disasters be systematically reduced.
Water is not only a threat but also essential for sustaining life, and
is indispensable for survival, economic development and
environmental sustainability. However, millions of women and
children are still forced to work long hours just to secure access to
water. Despite reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
target to halve the proportion of people lacking access to an
improved source of water, more than 1 billion people are still using
unsafe water and even more are not enjoying their human right to
safe drinking water.
The sanitation MDG target has not been reached. More than 2
billion people still live without this most basic service. The lack of
sanitation is deadly — too many people continue to die from
contaminated water and water-related diseases. Water
management therefore lies at the heart of sustainable
development as it is essential for human health and well-being.
Development, however, as it is defined in our modern world is
linked to growth. When looking at the roots of growth, it has always
been the availability of natural resources of all kinds, in particular
energy. Starting 200 years ago, we excessively are overexploiting
these natural resources, and many are not renewable.
How does sustainable development look like where water, energy
food security, economic growth and human well-being are

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inextricably linked? These linkages must be recognized to
effectively respond to population growth, urbanization, economic
growth and climate change challenges.
One could add, that since the financial crises in 2008, growth in
GDP terms in many countries only results due to market
interventions of central banks and governments – sustainable
development?
Despite the many other alarming concerns, fortunately we can also
clearly identify progress and many valuable achievements in risk
reduction strategies, disaster management and resilience increase
over the past years.
The Hyogo Framework for Action, under the leadership of SRSG
Margareta Wahlström and her team, has brought substantial
progress and consistency in coping with all the different risks and
we are very thankful for all your efforts and achievements.
The Hyogo Framework for Action will come to an end in 2015 and
shall be followed by a Post-2015 Framework for DRR. In her
keynote speech, SRSG Margareta Wahlstrom will provide more
insight into the goals and perspectives for the next decade.
Already for many years, she has been advocating for a reformation
and prolongation of the HFA process after 2015 to achieve future
resilient, sustainable societies. Earlier this month, the UN has
released a Pre-zero draft proposal of such a Post-2015 Framework

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for DRR which is basically based on a preparatory conference
organized by SRSG Wahlstrom in July in Geneva.
The IDRC Davos 2014 aims to contribute to her efforts and has
focused the whole conference programme and process to that
purpose.
IDRC Davos 2014 aims to serve as a platform for intense
discussions on amendments for the existent Pre-zero draft
mentioned before from the perspective of science, technology and
implementation. This also explains our conference theme which is
"Integrative Risk Management – the role of science, technology
and practice".
We will discuss, how science and technology can be used to move
towards a safer world and increase societies’ resilience and how
can our current know-how support this change process?
As you know, dear participants, we have requested you already
during the preparatory phase of the conference, to contribute to
this process. For example,
 we have asked you to provide input in chapter 4 of your
extended abstracts,
 we have asked you for a written personal statement.
Meanwhile a book with 150 statements is published and for
download on our website,
 for your oral presentations, we are requesting you to present
your ideas and concerns in one slide.

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 And tomorrow, we will have Plenary Session I providing an
overview on the outcomes of conferences which were held
earlier this year.
Please take these outcomes as an additional input for your further
thoughts and discussions during this week.
You also have the possibility to use our Red Chair just outside of
this room for delivering a 2 minutes video- recorded message with
your ideas.
Already at this stage, I would like to thank all of you who have
contributed and further will do so.
We are collecting all these information. Next Friday, we will hold a
post-conference expert workshop in close cooperation with the
UNISDR Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAG), and will
come up with a draft summary of all the many ideas commenting
the Pre-zero draft and which will serve as an input document for
the current preparatory process for a Post-2015 Framework for
DRR.
Let me conclude with a word of Thanks:
Our thanks go to the IDRC Davos 2014 patronage organizations
UNESCO, UNEP, UNITAR, and ILO, to our sponsors, to the Co-hosting
Institutions and Endorsing Partners,
to the Strategic and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group,

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to the Patrons, and the Chairpersons for their leadership and
guidance.
to the authors of all the papers and posters, to the special panel
and session organizers;
And last but not least to the Keynote Speakers and high-level
panelists. As in recent conferences, we would like to thank our
keynote and plenary speakers with a symbolic gift. Each gift
presented to this year's speakers helps to retrofit one house in
Bangladesh in support of our charity partner Caritas Switzerland
for the project: "Increase the resilience of the most vulnerable
people in cyclone prone areas of Bangladesh."
May the unforgettable Swiss mountain surroundings provide a
“Spirit of Davos”, which facilitates not only fruitful discussions and
an intensive exchange of experience and know-how between the
participants but also serve to start and deepen friendships.
Only together – we will make things happen!
Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen
The conference is opened.
Davos, August 24, 2014 Walter J. Ammann
Chairman, IDRC Davos 2014