Roundup: Senior UN official urges coherent global action to address El Nino

The president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Oh Joon, on Friday emphasized the need to reduce the impact of the El Nino by implementing agreed-upon international frameworks in a coherent manner and increasing resilience-building efforts for the development of holistic disaster risk management worldwide.

In a Presidential Statement following the special meeting on impacts of the 2015/16 El Nino phenomenon, which was held this past week at UN Headquarters in New York, the ECOSOC president stressed that the immediate priority must be to reduce the impact of the El Nino phenomenon by implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and the Paris Agreement on climate change in a coherent and integrated manner.

"The El Nino phenomenon -- with its increasing intensity -- has lasting consequences for development," Oh said, noting that participants in the special meeting had heard the many serious social, economic and environmental impacts of the phenomenon in 2015 and 2016.

El Nino -- which means the Little Boy in Spanish -- and its sister La Nina -- the Little Girl -- are weather events, which contribute to changes in climate and weather. It has been blamed for doubling of major droughts in 2015.

The effects of the droughts are still being felt with millions of people on opposite sides of the world experiencing hunger from Ethiopia, in Eastern Africa, to Papua New Guinea, in Oceania.

"The UN system should look to a coherent, coordinated and integrated approach in support and assistance to countries," Oh added.

In this regard, the recent agreement among the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to develop a protocol outlining steps to be taken collectively will help to ensure early and coordinated response to future El Nino and La Nina events, he said.

Oh highlighted that the importance of risk management is also underscored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for the development and implementation of holistic disaster risk management at all levels.

Risk reduction and resilience-building efforts should also be part of the World Humanitarian Summit considerations and the New Urban Agenda of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development, known as Habitat III, he added.

Among the key messages that emerged from discussions during the special meeting was that while the physical signs of the 2015/16 El Nino event are weakening, it will continue to climate patterns through the middle of 2016, and its socio-economic impacts will continue to strengthen till end of 2016.

There are also signs that a La Nina event is likely to begin toward August 2016, he said.

"We must learn from the current El Nino phenomenon and set plans and strategies in order to prepare for and address the risks and impacts of future El Ninos and the possibilities of La Nina," he said.

For that to occur, Oh stressed the importance of systematically evaluating, recording, sharing information and publicly accounting for disaster losses in order to develop strategies and plans to address the impacts of future El Ninos.

Moreover, he said that sustainable funding is necessary to build vulnerable people's long-term resilience to extreme weather events related to the phenomenon, and that partnerships bringing together all actors are indispensable.

Along those lines, in an opinion piece published in the Miami Herald earlier this week, Oh noted that the international community will build on the special meeting to address the common challenge of the El Nino phenomenon and mobilize the UN development system to assist affected countries.

"The devastating impact of the 2015-16 El Nino is another reminder that we must learn from the past and be prepared for the future -- we know what it takes to be prepared and to minimize its economic, social and environmental impact," he said.

"As we get ready to embrace the Atlantic hurricane season, the world's most vulnerable is counting on us to work together to manage and reduce the risks of extreme weather conditions," he added.

The ECOSOC special meeting was organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Endit