Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction | Geneva, Switzerland | 2–6 June 2025
Governments, UN agencies and civil society meet to talk about disaster risk. Too often, persons with disabilities are missing from that table. SAFOD set out to change that.
The eighth session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2025) ran from 2 to 6 June 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction organised it. It is the main global forum for reviewing progress on the Sendai Framework. That is the global plan for reducing disaster risk from 2015 to 2030.
SAFOD planned to attend with two affiliates. They were the Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD) and the Federation of Organisations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe (FODPZ).
Why the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction Matters
Direction is set at GP2025. Governments report. Strategies are agreed. Partnerships form. What is said, and who says it, shapes how countries plan for disasters for years.
The theme was Every Day Counts: Act for Resilience Today. For persons with disabilities, those words carry weight. Resilience is not built in an emergency. It is built in policies written before disaster strikes. It is built in warning systems that reach everyone, and in evacuation plans that leave no one behind.
Disasters do not discriminate. But systems often do.
What SAFOD Set Out to Push For
The team planned to do more than attend sessions. It aimed to press for clear change. Its priorities were:
- Disability views must shape DRR policies and plans at every level.
- Early warning systems must be accessible and inclusive from the start.
- Humanitarian infrastructure must follow universal design.
- Data on disability must be collected and used so no group stays unseen.
- Lived experience must be heard in global talks, not only in side events.
From Southern Africa to the Global Stage
The DiDRR project in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia has produced real evidence. It shows what disability-inclusive DRR looks like in practice.
Evidence for the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction
- Persons with disabilities now sit on disaster risk committees in some communities.
- Demonstration plots build food security and resilience at household level.
- Organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) have written advocacy plans. They know their communities and their governments.
This work is already under way in rural wards in Gwembe and in the fields of Muzarabani. Read more about the field visit to Gwembe, Zambia and the advocacy training for OPDs.
The Message for the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction
The message SAFOD carried to Geneva is simple. Inclusion is not a favour. It is a right. Resilience for everyone is the only kind of resilience that works.
Follow the work further in the 2026 DiDRR regional meeting and taking the disability DRR message to Windhoek.