National Platform of Disaster Risk Reduction in Turkey
AFAD which achieved a great transformation in terms of disaster and emergency in Turkey has established the Disaster Risk Reduction Platform of Turkey in order to contribute the disaster risk reduction system in light of global developments and by taking sustainable development objectives into consideration.
The platform, which is a good example of the recommendation of the framework plans that draw the roadmap of global disaster management, was established in 2011 and its Directive was approved in 2018 in line with the recommendations in the 2005 Hyogo Framework Action Plan prepared in the UN World Disaster Risk Reduction Conferences and the recommendations of 2015 Sendai Framework.
The aim of the Disaster Risk Reduction Platform of Turkey is to increase the sensitivity of the society about disasters and to ensure continuity in risk reduction activities, to determine the needs for the compliance of risk reduction with plans, policies, and programs at all levels, to contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of practices. The Platform, which will meet at least once a year, is a decision-making mechanism in the field of disaster risk reduction.
Disaster Risk Reduction Platform of Turkey which takes multi-stakeholding structure as the basis of disaster policy creation has efforts to activate our common strength, common wisdom, and common conscience in minimizing disaster losses and will not only make public authorities have a say but also make the universities, NGOs, private sector, media, and local governments have a say in this field.
The first meeting of the platform that brought disaster management to a new social level was held with the theme of "Understanding Disaster Risk", which is the first priority of the Sendai Framework. In addition to executives in this field, the Minister of Interior Mr Süleyman Soylu and AFAD President Dr Mehmet Güllüoğlu attended this meeting that was held on August 21st, 2020. At the meeting, a panel moderated by AFAD President Dr Mehmet Güllüoğlu was organized to which representatives of public, universities, private sector, media, and non-governmental organizations attended, and the panel was concluded with the evaluation of the sectors' perspectives on the theme of understanding disaster risk.