Global Campaign: International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths
By Abdullahi O. Umar
The Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN) celebrated the first year of the global campaign, International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD) throughout March 2024.
The global campaign, a significant milestone in the fight against avoidable deaths, was inaugurated on 13 March 2023 in the city of Izumiotsu in Osaka, Japan, by Ms Mami Mizutori, (former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and former Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction).
The global campaign aims to raise awareness of disaster deaths and missing persons while capturing their impact on people’s lives and providing a platform wherein policymakers, practitioners and researchers can make more informed decisions that lead to lives saved. The goal is to capture the causes and circumstances that lead to avoidable disaster deaths so that national and local responders can implement context-specific interventions to save lives. Through our work, we strive to reduce the actual number of deaths from disasters and highlight the value of the lives saved through effective disaster risk governance, and preventable and timely interventions.
ADN’s Global Campaign IAD4AD was celebrated on 12 March 2024, the event was impressive and the campaign celebrated throughout the month. ADN’s Global Campaign IAD4AD 2024 theme was “Do One Thing”. Thirteen key global messages were provided for campaigners. For more information and guidance for campaigners, please visit Guidance For Campaigners – International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths.
Key to the campaign’s success were the identified mandatory campaigners, including local communities, governments at local and national levels, public health, and disaster risk management authorities. Also, desirable campaigners such as the United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs)), and media organisations were instrumental. Their active participation was crucial in spreading the campaign’s message. The hashtag for the ADN’s IAD4AD Global Campaign was #avoidabledeathsday.
The key organisers of the IAD4AD 2024 were Regional Coordinators (RCs), Advisory Board Members, Organisational Partners, Project Collaborators, Country Chapters and Research Hubs, and Affiliates. Some 53 activities occurred across 13 countries, and four continents: Austria, Bangladesh, Belize, Georgia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the UK and Zambia. There were 19 different types of activities, which comprised articles, press releases, light shows, meetings, workshops, field visits, chapter launches, social media campaigns, tree plantings, orientations, vlogs, videos, posters, rallies, seminars, spoken word poetry, symposium, capacity building and webinars. For more information on the IAD4AD global campaign, please visit https://iad4ad.avoidable-deaths.net/.
The IAD4AD in-person event was held in Odisha, India, from 12 – 14 March 2024, led by the ADN India Hub hosted by Orissa State Volunteers and Social Workers Association (OSVSWA). The next in-person event will be in the next five years after a successful bidding process by any Regional Coordinators (RCs) or Country Chapter hosts. Eight RCs celebrated the IAD4AD 2024, and 4 Advisory Board members participated. One thousand two hundred eighty-seven participants physically attended the activities, while 38 attended virtually.
The enthusiasm and dedication demonstrated during the first year of the International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD) campaign have set a solid foundation for future endeavours. The diverse range of activities and the broad participation of stakeholders underscore the critical importance of collaborative efforts in addressing the challenges posed by disaster deaths. By bringing together local communities, governmental bodies, public health authorities, and disaster risk management experts, the campaign has fostered a sense of shared responsibility and commitment to reducing avoidable deaths locally with global significance.
Looking ahead, ADN aims to build on this momentum by advocating for improved disaster risk governance and implementing evidence-based interventions. The focus will remain on engaging with policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to ensure that the knowledge gained from the campaign is translated into actionable strategies that save lives. As the campaign grows, it will also seek to expand its reach to more countries and communities, amplifying the impact of its message and further solidifying its role as a catalyst for positive change in disaster risk reduction.