LEGAZPI CITY—United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson will visit the country and specifically Albay province tomorrow, March 8, to review the province’s multi-awarded Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation programs.
Albay’s innovative disaster risk reduction strategy towards sustainable development continuously has gained global recognition.
Eliasson’s visit forms part of the preparations for the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul next May. In the summit, the Philippines will be presented as sole global model for DRR-CCA; Albay’s programs will be featured.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda will brief Eliasson and other UN officials and guests during their visit on Albay’s innovative approach in linking up DRR and CCA with sustainable development.
The UN executive will also visit the Albay Climate Change Academy, the first of its kind in Asia, serving as a training center on DRR and CCA, for local government officials and many coming from other countries, said Cedric Daep, Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office head.
Salceda also pioneered the Zero Casualty goal and preemptive evacuation strategy in Disaster Risk and Reduction Management. Albay has had Zero Casualty in 20 of the past 22 years. “This gives flesh to the central philosophy of our provincial community—constant of kindness and the universality of human dignity,” he noted.
Expected to be with Eliasson are Haoliang Xu, assistant secretary-general, United Nations Development Program, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau of Asia-Pacific; Ola Almgren, UN Philippines resident coordinator; Titon Mitra, UNDP Country Director, Philippines; Mark Bidder, OCHA Head of Office, Philippines; Subinay Nandy, Asia-Pacific Division chief; Rebecca Page, Special Assistant to the DSG;and Sophie Nuon, OCHA Humanitarian Affairs Officer.
Dr. Cedric Daep, said Salceda’s briefing will also touch on Albay’s successful rehabilitation strategies after Typhoon Reming (Durian) hit Albay hard in 2006, which enabled the province to rise and get back on its feet in a few years.
The UN Humanitarian Summit on May 23-24 is a “global call to action by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,” the first of its kind, according to the WHS website. It is scheduled at the Istanbul Congress Center and the Lutfi Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Center in Istanbul, Turkey.
Albay’s innovative CCA and DRR programs, and its pioneering green economy policy founded on the principles of sustainable development, has brought the province significant successes and a harvest of awards and recognitions in the past nine years. Its latest award, as the country’s First Green Eco Champion was conferred by the Green Convergence Phils (GCP) during its First Environmental Summit recently at the SMX Convention Center in the Mall of Asia, Pasay City.
Earlier, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) named Albay as Global Model, and Salceda as its Senior Global Champion and spokesman on DRR and CCA. The governor was likewise elected as 2013-2014 chair of the Green Climate Fund of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.