LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines - The United Nations (UN), in recognition of the zero casualty performance of the province’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) for the past 16 years, awarded Gov. Joey Salceda as senior global champion for disaster risk reduction during the opening ceremony of the Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR in Incheon, South Korea, last Tuesday.
“The people of Albay is honored by this award and we accept this as a challenge to sustain our disaster risk reduction program in pursuit of the Milleniun Developlement Goals (MDG),” Salceda said.
“Given rising climate risks, no development is possible without adaptation. But it is development that gives meaning to adaptation,” he added.
Salceda said adaptation is the duty of the state simply because it is the poor that bears the brunt of climate impacts and natural disasters– those who are most vulnerable are also the least capable of protection, those who have more in risks also have less in resources.
“This duty cannot be outsourced, it cannot be offshored, it cannot be delegated But it must do so by capacitating local communities and reinforcing local governance- - by making cities and provinces resilient,” Salceda said.
Albay province has also achieved all the MDG targets earlier than the 2015 global deadline through the Albay Millenium Development Goals Office. Salceda created the office to monitor, implement and evaluate the MDG targets as a vision through safe and shared development through DRR and CCA under the Hyogo Framework (Building Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters) and shared as sustained improvement in the Human Development Index.