Excellencies,
Heads of delegations,
Esteemed Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen, all protocols observed,
1. It is a great pleasure to be part of this very important regional meeting on disaster risk reduction. On behalf of the Government of Rwanda, I wish to highly commend the Republic of Namibia, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the African Union Commission, and other organizations and institutions for organizing this event under the outstanding theme: "Act Now for the Resilient Africa We Want."
2. The Government of Rwanda has put in place various measures for disaster risk reduction and is committed to achieving the goals and priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction through actions and measures aiming at reducing disaster risks while building a Disaster-Resilient Nation.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
3. Due to a number of factors such as the rapid urbanization, unsustainable land use practices, and the increasing impacts of climate change evidenced by extreme weather events as well as geological phenomena, mainly the earthquakes in Western parts of the Country; Rwanda's disaster risks have increased significantly. In response, the Country has put in place measures to combat such disaster effects.
4. Indeed, as the Government of Rwanda is committed to building a Disaster-Resilient Nation to reverse effects of disasters and make remarkable strides towards sustainable development, all the seven (7) targets of SFDRR and the additional four targets of the Africa Program of Action have been and are being fulfilled.
5. Allow me, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, to highlight in a summarized way, some of the achievements of my Country in implementing the four pillars of the Sendai framework for Disaster Risk Reduction:
6. Rwanda has demonstrated a strong political commitment to put in place policies, laws and institutions for effective disaster risk reduction. There is a dedicated Ministry for Disaster risk management with structure plans and budget for Policy, Planning, Risk Reduction, Surveillance and Preparedness, Response and Recovery Operations.
7. With the involvement of all partners, the Government of Rwanda has put in place different legal and institutional frameworks including:
a) Last year a new National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Policy was adopted and is aligned to the four pillars of the SFDRR 2015-2030;
b) A new Strategic plan to ensure that all the pillars of the Sendai Framework are achieved by 2030 was designed early this year and implementation has started.
c) A National Disaster Risk Governance Strategy to advance risk mainstreaming across sectors was adopted to tackle underlying disaster risk factors.
d) A National Emergency Command Centre has been established and operationalized to ensure technical coordination of Risk reduction and management activities.
8. Rwanda is about to launch the Early warning for all initiatives in November and this will come with the adoption of a comprehensive anticipatory action approach to consistently mitigate imminent risk and protect lives of our exposed communities.
9. Since we can't achieve all this without consequent investments, Rwanda is also developing a Disaster risk Financing strategy to be able to innovate with financial tools that will help the country to minimize the impact of disasters.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
10. As I end my remarks, I would like to reiterate our gratitude, and acknowledge the support of all partners; the UN System, the governments and other international organizations in assisting our country in a range of disaster risk reduction and development programmes. We most welcome the continued collaboration, as we strive to reduce disaster risks and build resilience.
11. I, therefore, on behalf of the Government of Rwanda, hereby approve the adoption of all outcomes of the African regional platform and sign the Ministerial Declaration and recommendations on the implementation of the Africa Programme of Action for submission to the African Union Policy Organ for consideration and endorsement.
12. I thank you for your kind attention.