At international level
Bilateral tasks of PLANAT
Invitation to the Implementation Council of the National Platform for Resilience
In April 2024, the Implementation Advisory Board of the National Platform for Resilience met for the first time in Berlin. Franziska Schmid and Helen Gosteli (both PLANAT) gave the advisory board their best wishes and hopefully helpful experiences from PLANAT's work.
The meeting was attended by 17 representatives from government, civil society, science, media, culture and education, business and the National Contact Point for the German Resilience Strategy. The aim of the advisory board is to support the implementation of the resilience strategy with ideas, knowledge and recommendations.
Invitation to the symposium on disaster risk reduction in Germany
In April 24, the conference entitled "On the Edge? Disaster Risk Reduction in Uncertain Times". Participants from various sectors discussed challenges and possible solutions. Conclusion: ‘Resilience only works together’. The efforts to make German civil protection more inclusive were impressive.
State of the nation - Where do we stand today?
Franziska Schmid (PLANAT) was invited to the conference by Reimund Schwarze from DKKV. During a panel discussion, she exchanged views with him, Roland Nussbaum (AFPCNT France) and Christian Resch (DCNA Austria) on natural hazards in the context of the risk landscape, the challenge of climate change and the inclusion of all stakeholders in integral risk management.
Visit by an Indonesian flood defence delegation
An Indonesian delegation - consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Civil Protection and the World Bank - visited Switzerland in autumn 2023 for an exchange on flood protection. PLANAT provided an overview of its role in internal and external cooperation, Switzerland's strategy and integral risk management as well as cantonal subsidy practices.
Enquète Commission Rhineland-Palatinate
In 2023, the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate (D) asked Switzerland to present its future strategy for disaster risk reduction - specifically adaptation to extreme weather events in urban development. PLANAT worked with other organisations to develop the Swiss position and presented it to the state parliament.
Support for the Republic of Kosovo
Through the UN, PLANAT advised the young Republic of Kosovo from 2014 to 2016 on the development of a national strategy for dealing with natural hazards. It also provided support with specific measures against slope instability and avalanches and provided impetus for the creation of a Kosovan platform, which has since been operating independently.
Multilateral tasks
Climate change, settlement development and environmental degradation are leading to increasing disaster risks. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) counters these risks with the ‘Sendai Framework Convention 2015-2030’ ratified by Switzerland. PLANAT coordinates the activities for implementing and monitoring this agreement in Switzerland. It is also part of the DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) Consultative Group. This consists of representatives from the SDC, FOEN, FOCP, PLANAT, SECO, the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, the Steering Committee Intervention Natural Hazards, the Swiss NGO DRR Platform, the Zurich Insurance Group and the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance.
Voluntary report on the Sendai Agreement
In November 2022, the Federal Council took note of Switzerland's voluntary report 2022 on the implementation of the Sendai Agreement. This is the first time that a consolidated status of the work on Switzerland's risk landscape is available. The report was compiled by the Swiss DRR Consultative Group with representatives from the federal government, academia, civil society and insurance companies. PLANAT coordinated the work and contributed its expertise on the status of implementation of integral risk management.
European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Portugal
The topic was the question of what the international community can learn from COVID-19 and the accelerating climate crisis and how we can tackle systemic risks in the future. PLANAT helped to develop Switzerland's key positions in advance and contributed them to the risk governance session.
Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Genf
At the Global Platform for DRR 2019 in Geneva, jointly organised by Switzerland and the UN, PLANAT presented its experience to date with the Sendai Framework to 182 state representatives, presented the Swiss strategy and collaborated on the final declaration.