Natural
disasters exert an enormous toll on development. In doing
so, they pose a significant threat to prospects for achieving
the Millennium Development Goals in particular, the overarching
target of halving extreme poverty by 2015. Annual economic
losses associated with such disasters averaged US$ 75.5
billion in the 1960s, US$ 138.4 billion in the 1970s, US$
213.9 billion in the 1980s and US$ 659.9 billion in the
1990s. The majority of these losses are concentrated in
the developed world and fail to adequately capture the impact
of the disaster on the poor who often bear the greatest
cost in terms of lives and livelihoods, and rebuilding their
shattered communities and infrastructure. Today, 85 percent
of the people exposed to earthquakes, tropical cyclones,
floods and droughts live in countries having either medium
or low human development.
This
Report is premised on the belief that in many countries
the process of development itself has a huge impact —
both positive and negative — on disaster risk. It
shows how countries that face similar patterns of natural
hazards — from floods to droughts — often experience
widely differing impacts when disasters occur. The impact
depends in large part on the kind of development choices
they have made previously. As countries become more prosperous,
for example, they are often better able to afford the investments
needed to build houses more likely to withstand earthquakes.
At the same time, the rush for growth can trigger haphazard
urban development that increases risks of large-scale fatalities
during such a disaster. The same is true in many other areas.While
humanitarian action to mitigate the impact of disasters
will always be vitally important, the global community is
facing a critical challenge: How to better anticipate —
and then manage and reduce — disaster risk by integrating
the potential threat into its planning and policies.
To
help frame such efforts, this Report introduces a pioneering
Disaster Risk Index (DRI) that measures the relative vulnerability
of countries to three key natural hazards — earthquake,
tropical cyclone and flood — identifies development
factors that contribute to risk, and shows in quantitative
terms, just how the effects of disasters can be either reduced
or exacerbated by policy choices.Our hope is that the index
will both help generate renewed interest in this critical
development issue and help bring together stakeholders around
more careful and coherent planning to mitigate the impact
of future disasters.
Copyright
© 2004
United Nations Development Programme
Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017, USA
www.undp.org/bcpr
The views expressed in this report are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations
and the United Nations Development Programme.
ISBN 92-1-126160-0 |
