NZ sets disaster preparedness example, says Clark

Former PM Helen Clark other countries could learn from how New Zealand has handled the Christchurch quake. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Countries around the world should aspire to be as prepared as New Zealand for massive natural disasters like the Christchurch earthquake, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says.

Miss Clark, who heads the United Nations Development Programme in New York, said New Zealand's preparedness had saved lives despite the September 4 quake being bigger than the magnitude 7.0 tremor which devastated Haiti in January, killing more than 200,000 people.

"There were no deaths mostly because there were years of a strong building code and anticipating that New Zealand, on the ring of fire and volcanic area around the Pacific, could suffer such an event," she said in an online video chat this morning.

"Now what we have to aspire to do is build that level of resilience in countries around the world. It will take time, but it can be done."

Miss Clark said building such resilience was vital to minimising the impact of natural disasters.

"If you put in place the systems which anticipate what disaster might strike, then you can act to thwart the worst effects."

She was critical of how international aid funding was targeted after large natural disasters like the Haiti quake or the recent Pakistan floods.

While the international community generally provided immediate humanitarian relief, early recovery schemes to help people rebuild were "the least funded part of any international appeal for help".

"In the first response to a disaster, people need food, they need water, they need shelter, they need medicines. But actually what they need almost immediately is the ability to rebuild their lives," she said.

"It is a frustration for us that early recovery doesn't get the same attention and support as the immediate relief does."

In the one-hour chat, Miss Clark also addressed a range of international development issues such as climate change, poverty, women's rights and conflict.

- NZPA