He said adequate investment in DRR would go a long way to substantially reduce disaster damage to critical national infrastructures and services.

He noted that strengthening community resilience and reducing disaster risks were critical elements in promoting the nation's sustainable development.

Dr Addo-Yobo made the call in his presentation at a stakeholders meeting on "Disaster Risks Reduction in Ghana: The Future of our Cities", in Accra.

The DRR is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster.

It aims at reducing the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones, through an ethic of prevention.

The two-day meeting was organised by the NDPC in collaboration with the Cities and Climate Change Steering Committee at the Regional Institute of Population Studies, University of Ghana and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).

Dr Addo-Yobo said disasters were real issues in Ghana, and there was the need for disaster risk reduction to be taken seriously; citing the recent flooding of some cities and towns and the high spat of fatal accidents on roads in the country.

Speaking on the topic "Disaster Risk Reduction within the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Voluntary National Review (VNR)", Dr Addo-Yobo said the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognised and reaffirmed the urgent need to reduce the risk of disasters.

"In addition to direct references to the outcomes of the Third United Nations Conference on DRR (Sendai Framework), there are specific opportunities to achieve SDGs through reducing disaster risk," he stated.

He said the Sendai Framework targets and indicators contributed to measuring disaster-related targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He said SDG 11 seeks to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, whereas, SDG 13 also sought take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

With regards to the SDGs Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), Dr Addo-Yobo said 51 countries, including Ghana would present VNRs report at the 2019 High Level Panel Forum in New York form July 9–18; adding that, this would be followed by the first Head of Government-level review of the SDGs in September.

He said VNRs, which formed part of the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sought to promote experiences sharing–(successes, challenges and lessons learned) and to track progress in implementing the Goals and targets.