Crisis Prevention and Recovery

Launch of 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction: Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate

Jordan Ryan, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, UNDP

28 May 2009, New York

Distinguished Excellencies and members of the panel,

Let me first of all thank you for the invitation to this launch of the ISDR system’s Global Assessment Report (GAR) on Disaster Risk Reduction. I am very grateful for the opportunity to join the discussion.

The 21st Century has already been marked by escalating economic losses and human devastation caused by disasters stemming from natural hazards. The average from 2000-2007 globally was 400 disasters per year in 120 countries affecting 230 million people annually and causing an average of $80 billion per year in economic losses.

The importance of managing such disasters was highlighted at the 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, where 168 governments adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action with its five priority areas of action.

The GAR is a call for action for continued and strengthened efforts towards the goals of this framework. This report illustrates very convincingly that reducing disaster risk can, at the same time, help in reducing poverty, safeguarding development and adapting to climate change and that – in the light of the effects of climate change – action must be taken now to avoid losses in the future.

I want to raise three main points regarding the significance of the report:

1. Global disaster risk is highly concentrated in poorer countries with weaker governance. Particularly in low and low-middle income countries with rapid economic growth, the exposure of people and assets to natural hazards is growing at a faster rate than risk-reducing capacities are being strengthened, leading to increasing disaster risk.

Disasters and development are highly inter-related. Recurrent, large-scale disasters and frequent localized disasters erode development gains and compromise a country’s prospects for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Conversely, the process of development can create, or reduce, disaster risks.

Work on disaster reduction helps in achieving the MDGs, by reducing natural hazard-related losses that could arrest or reverse progress toward meeting planned MDG targets, and by re-establish the basic foundations for meeting MDG targets following disasters. Activities such as the protection of schools, hospitals and economically productive activities and assets will, and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially during disaster recovery, will help to safeguard and further progress towards the MDGs.

Furthermore, disaster risk itself is a disincentive for development. People in high risk areas, who experience frequent losses of assets and economic outputs, become risk averse. They avoid risking the investments of livelihood resources needed to advance economically, because these investments are all too often lost in the next flood, drought or other calamity.

The relationship between disaster risk and poverty is clearly visible in the case of drought, one of the most widespread and frequently occurring hazards. Globally, the further one moves down the economic ladder, increasing proportions of the moderately poor, poor, and extremely poor live in the most drought prone areas. UNDP's 2007/2008 Human Development Report, Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World, reported that the overwhelming majority of people affected by climate-related disasters live in developing countries. Between 2000 and 2004, on average 1 in 19 people living in a developing country was affected by a disaster involving a hydro-meteorological hazard. The corresponding figure for those living in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was 1 in 1,500. UNDP's 2004 report, Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development, documented that disaster-related deaths occur disproportionately in low and medium human development countries.

Societal inequalities reinforce vulnerabilities of the poorest. Hence, the more inclusive, coherent and cohesive a society is, the better it is able to adapt to the natural hazards and to prevent disasters or to mitigate their impact.

2. Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of natural hazards and thus augments the likelihood of disasters. Over the 20th century, disasters involving climatic hazards were already seven times as frequent as those involving geo-physical hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and accounted for nine times as many deaths. The economic losses from climatically-triggered disasters were dramatically higher than those from disasters triggered by geo-physical hazards and the number of people affected 55 times greater. In some countries, particularly in Africa, the losses are so frequent and widespread as to not only undermine the achievements of the MDGs but also lead to instability. This situation is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. We therefore have to act and invest today for a safer tomorrow.

3. Disasters are not natural – on the contrary, risk reduction allows us to prevent disasters or at least mitigate the impact of natural hazards. Disaster reduction is simple in theory but highly complex in practice. However, the GAR shows us what we can do. Losses occur when societally valuable assets – such as people, infrastructure or economically important land uses or activities - are exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards. One way to reduce losses is to reduce hazard exposure. Avoiding hazard prone areas limits how much damage can occur when a hazard strikes. The other way to reduce risks of losses is to reduce the vulnerability of people and societal assets to the hazards to which they are exposed. Vulnerability reduction can be achieved in many ways, including such measures as anti-seismic construction or early warning systems.

Practically, disaster reduction requires creating the conditions for implementing risk identification, reduction and transfer in high risk situations. This process is complex. High risk countries in the developing world have many pressing development priorities. An evidence-based approach is necessary therefore, to ensure that risk management measures address actual risk factors effectively in areas where losses would otherwise inevitably occur. Because hazard events often have widespread impacts across multiple economic sectors, protecting each sector against losses requires mainstreaming disaster risk management into a wide range of development processes.

UNDP is very active on disaster reduction. From my time as Junior Officer with UNDP in China I remember how we supported the national government in disaster preparedness through major capacity building activities.

UNDP also assists countries to recover more quickly after disasters. Early recovery addresses a critical gap in coverage between humanitarian relief and long-term recovery, reducing reliance on externally-provided disaster relief and promoting human development. While working within a humanitarian setting, early recovery focuses on the future—assessing damages to infrastructure, property, livelihoods, and societies. Its goal is to enable a smoother transition to long-term recovery—to restore livelihoods, government capacities, shelter—and offer hope to those who survived the crisis.

The Global Assessment Report shows us that such activities must be greatly increased in number and scale to face the challenges ahead. As part of the ISDR system, UNDP will continue its efforts on disaster risk reduction to achieve the objectives of the Hyogo Framework. The Global Assessment Report provides a very valuable analysis of the current and future challenges, but it also outlines the opportunities and entry points to reduce disaster risk and associated losses.

In conclusion, disasters are not natural; there is something we can do to prevent them or at least mitigate their impact. Climate change is making the need to focus on prevention rather than response more urgent today than ever before. Let us take on this challenge by increasing our common efforts and the collective responsibility to invest today for a safer tomorrow.

Thank you.