HE the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi stressed yesterday that Qatar attaches special importance to the issues of sustainable development as one of the pillars of its National Vision 2030, adding that it considers preparing and responding to natural and man-made hazards and disasters as one of the most important means of preserving national development efforts.
In his address to the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which is being hosted in Geneva from May 13 to 17, al-Muraikhi said that Qatar supports the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated in Japan in 2015 with seven commonly recognised objectives.
Al-Muraikhi, who heads the delegation of Qatar participating in the Forum and the first ministerial roundtable, underlined that Qatar has enacted the necessary legislation and laws, both at legislative and institutional level to adopt the framework. At the national level, Qatar has established the Permanent Emergency Committee, and at the regional and global level, the Standing Committee for Rescue, Relief and Humanitarian Assistance has been established in the affected areas of friendly countries.
He added that Qatar has also enacted laws on humanitarian and non-governmental organisations and donor institutions that direct support and relief to all affected countries due to natural or man-made disasters, and has also invested in qualified personnel to work in the areas of rescue, development and relief.
Al-Muraikhi pointed out that Qatar hosted the 3rd Arab Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction under the title “Implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Arab Region”, in co-ordination with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the League of Arab States, noting that the conference discussed the regional dimension in the Arab countries’ response to disasters especially since the Arab region has faced many disasters in recent years.
He pointed out that the conference resulted in the “Doha Declaration”, which stressed the importance of defining responsibilities and roles and developing working mechanisms at all levels for the purpose of achieving governance and transparency. 
Al-Muraikhi also stressed the importance of the availability of a database and updated information on risks and losses of disasters and the development of regional and national indicators, in order to support risk reduction efforts, in line with the requirements of the implementation of the Sendai Framework and the realisation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Plan.
He added that the Doha Declaration called for a preventive response to disasters including: strengthening infrastructure, combating poverty, empowering communities, benefiting from the role of youth and women centres, and investing in scientific research. 
He referred to Qatar’s attention to science and technology, and its support for co-ordination among the Arab parties concerned with disasters, to contribute to the output of decisions based on scientific grounds.
Al-Muraikhi added that Qatar organised a workshop on April 24 on responding to natural and man-made disasters, the role and challenges of relief and development work. The workshop’s participants presented a number of challenges facing relief work and the difficulty of immediate response to disasters, due to the absence of proactive plans and co-ordination between the intervening parties. 
He pointed out that the workshop called for the need to co-ordinate and unify the reference in the event of disasters, to reach the maximum positive results in terms of rescue and reduce the impact of disasters, with the participation of international actors in this area.
He stressed the keenness of Qatar to participate actively in all relevant conferences such as the 2017 Global Platform, the Arab-African Regional Forum held in Tunis in October 2018 and other regional and international events such as the regional conferences in Mongolia 2018 and India 2016 among others. 
He pointed to the uneven potential of countries and their ability to deal with the disaster challenges they face. Al-Muraikhi added that strengthening partnerships within the framework of international co-operation should be one of the foundations of the sustainable development agenda 2030.