As the Sendai Framework’s 10th birthday approaches in September 2025, UNESCO seeks to take stock of and examine it’s widespread contributions to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
UNESCO commissioned IRMA for the evaluation of its work on DRR. Recognising that UNESCO’s work on DRR covers 60 years and has never been the subject of an external evaluation, the scope of this evaluation is 2015 to 2024, inclusive, which represents the first ten years of UNESCO’s contribution to the Sendai Framework. The evaluation has two inter-connected objectives. The summative objective is to assess what has been achieved so far in DRR by UNESCO through different sectors workstreams. The formative objective will inform UNESCO’s decision-making and programming on DRR through provision of evidence-based and future-oriented recommendations. Both aspects should also enable UNESCO to identify its added value in DRR.
Importantly, UNESCO’s origin story proposed an organisation “to advance sustainable development, lasting peace, and meaningful international cooperation, on the basis of solidarity and dialogue, mutual respect and justice”. This indicates that conflict–as only one of many hazards–is key to retain as part of the multi-hazard evaluation focus, This also aligns to the globally accepted definition of disaster risk reduction (UNDRR 2019). Since the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) was launched in 2015, UNESCO has increasingly aligned its investments with the Framework’s objectives and four priorities. In 2021, UNESCO Member States approved the creation of an independent DRR unit. This decision was made in response to growing requests for support from national governments. The unit operates under the Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences as part of UNESCO’s 2022-2029 strategy and budget.
The cross-sectoral unit has two main goals. First, it aims to mainstream DRR and climate change adaptation within UNESCO and other UN entities. Second, it coordinates UNESCO’s DRR work with key programs such as the International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP), the Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP).