Yokohama Strategy

Also called: Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World · Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Natural Hazards and Disasters: Causes, Consequences and Management"

Meaning

The Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World was the first global plan to reduce natural disasters. It was adopted at the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction in Yokohama, Japan, on 23-27 May 1994. It asked every country to protect its own people. It gave special help to the weakest countries. It asked countries to focus on prevention, mitigation and preparedness, and to work with each other.

It matters because it started the line of global disaster plans. That line runs from Yokohama (1994) to the Hyogo Framework (2005) and then to the Sendai Framework (2015-2030). UPSC often asks about this order and how each plan differs.

Explanation

Why it was made

• Disasters cross borders.
• A big cyclone, tsunami or earthquake can cause more loss than one country can handle.

• Poor countries cannot pay for relief and rebuilding, so they need money, technology and experts from other countries.

• So the UN General Assembly took up the issue in 1989. It passed resolution 44/236, which declared the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).

• IDNDR (a UN "decade" in which countries agreed to work together to cut deaths and losses from natural hazards) ran from 1990 to 1999 (NCERT says 1990-2000).

• Yokohama was the main event at the halfway point of IDNDR. The conference looked back at the first half of the decade and set out a plan for what came next.

Its four main principles

• Sovereign responsibility. Each country has a duty to protect its own citizens from disasters.
• Priority to the most vulnerable. These countries get special attention:
• developing countries
• least developed countries (LDCs)
• landlocked countries (countries with no coastline)

• small island states

• National capacity. Each country should build its own skills and systems and pass laws for:

• prevention: stopping a hazard from turning into a disaster
• mitigation: reducing the effect of a hazard, for example with earthquake-safe buildings or embankments
• preparedness: being ready before the hazard strikes

• NGOs and local communities should take part, so the work is not left to governments alone.

• Regional and international cooperation. Countries should help one another through:

• capacity building (training people and building institutions)
• sharing technology and information
• resource mobilisation (raising money and materials)

Its structure and its limit

• Structure: a set of principles and a plan of action. Unlike Hyogo and Sendai, it had no numbered list of priorities or targets.
• Focus: response and preparedness.
• Limit: it still saw disasters mainly as events to respond to. Later plans moved towards cutting the risk itself:
• Hyogo (2005-2015): building resilience (the ability of nations and communities to take a shock and recover). It had 5 priorities.

• Sendai (2015-2030): moving from managing disasters to managing disaster risk. It has 4 priorities and 7 targets [2][3].

• Disaster risk reduction (DRR) means cutting the chance of harm before a hazard strikes, through planning, safer buildings, early warning and preparing people. Yokohama was the first step towards this idea. Sendai is where it is now most fully stated.

Where it occurs

• Place of adoption: Yokohama, Japan, at the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, 23-27 May 1994.
• Who it applied to: all countries working under the UN's IDNDR (1990-1999).

• Special focus went to developing countries, LDCs, landlocked countries and small island states.

• Who carried it forward:

• When the decade ended, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR, 2000) took over from IDNDR.
• Its office, UNISDR, coordinated DRR across the UN system.

• UNISDR has since been renamed UNDRR (UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction). UNDRR now looks after the Sendai Framework.

• Japan as host: all three global plans were adopted in Japan:

• Yokohama (1994)
• Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture (January 2005)

• Sendai (18 March 2015) [2][3][4]

• In India: India's own system followed the same move from response to risk. It went from relief manuals to the Disaster Management Act 2005, and then to a national plan aligned with Sendai.

Don't confuse with

• IDNDR (1990-1999): this was the UN decade declared by UNGA resolution 44/236 in 1989. Yokohama was the conference and strategy held at the halfway point of that decade, not the decade itself.
• Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015): adopted at Kobe, not Yokohama, just weeks after the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It had 5 priorities and focused on resilience. Yokohama had principles, not numbered priorities.
• Sendai Framework (2015-2030): the current plan, with 4 priorities and 7 targets tracked through 38 indicators [3][5]. It manages risk before a disaster. Yokohama mainly focused on response and preparedness.
• ISDR / UNISDR (2000): this was the UN strategy and office that replaced IDNDR. It was not a conference held in Japan.

Prelims Hooks

• The Yokohama Strategy was adopted at the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, Yokohama, Japan, 23-27 May 1994. This was the halfway point of IDNDR.
• IDNDR was declared by UNGA resolution 44/236 (1989). It ran 1990-1999 (NCERT: 1990-2000).
• Order: Yokohama (1994) → ISDR/UNISDR (2000) → Hyogo (2005) → Sendai (2015). All three conferences were held in Japan.
• Priority groups under Yokohama: developing countries, LDCs, landlocked countries and small island states.
• Four principles: sovereign responsibility, priority to the most vulnerable, national capacity (prevention, mitigation, preparedness), and regional and international cooperation.
• Trap: Yokohama = principles and a plan of action, with no numbered list. Hyogo = 5 priorities. Sendai = 4 priorities + 7 targets [3]. Do not swap these.

Mains Points

• From response to risk (GS-III):
• Yokohama (1994) focused on preparedness and response.
• Hyogo (2005) focused on building resilience.
• Sendai (2015-2030) focuses on managing risk [2].

• India followed the same path: relief manuals → DM Act 2005 → a national plan aligned with Sendai. Use this arc in answers on how disaster management has changed.

• Lasting value of Yokohama's principles:

• "Sovereign responsibility" and "national capacity" are the roots of national DRR laws and institutions.

• "Priority to the most vulnerable" still guides help for SIDS and LDCs. Today the gaps are largest there. For example, only 43% of small island developing States reported having multi-hazard early warning systems in 2025 [6].

• Cooperation as policy:

• Yokohama's call for technology sharing, capacity building and raising resources is now carried out through India-led efforts:
  • CDRI, launched in September 2019 in New York, with its secretariat in New Delhi [7]
  • IRIS (2021), CDRI's programme for small island states
• These efforts show India as a DRR partner for countries of the Global South.

Related concepts

• International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction
• Hyogo Framework for Action
• Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
• Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

Read more

• Disaster risk reduction worldwide: IDNDR to Sendai and CDRI