Our focus

Resilience

Overview

Countries in Europe and Central Asia face a broad spectrum of climate-related and geophysical disasters, such as floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, and wildfires. These disasters threaten decades of hard-won development achievements and put millions of people at risk.

There is no country in Europe and Central Asia where the impact of climate change cannot be seen and felt. The entire region is now clearly affected by air temperature variations, changes in river runoff and precipitation, and the more frequent incidence of extreme weather events. The region is also prone to natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, droughts and landslides – which adds additional complexity to climate change impacts. Therefore, promotion of disaster risk reduction efforts is more important than ever before. 

From the catastrophic flooding in Western Balkan countries to more widespread and prolonged droughts in the countries of Central Asia, extreme climate events are threatening decades of hard-won development achievements.
At the same time, economies in the region are characterized by high levels of energy intensity and inefficiency, ageing infrastructure and the slow adoption of renewable energy sources.
 

Our goals

As the UN agency working on sustainable development, UNDP has a mandate of supporting countries as they build resilience to climate change and disasters. UNDP supports countries to:

•  Address and build resilience to the impacts of climate change;

•  Assist countries as they brace for disaster and help them recover fast.

In depth

The countries in the Europe and Central Asia region have a long history of devastating disasters. Although countries have made progress in reducing risks associated with emergencies and disasters, in 2019 alone, 1,180 people lost their lives and 59,401 people saw their dwellings damaged due to disasters with USD 514 million in direct economic losses attributed to disasters.

Almost all types of disaster are present in ECIS region, including earthquakes, floods, landslides and extreme temperatures. While disaster events are inevitable, their actual impact is directly linked to poor development choices that increase vulnerabilities and expose people and communities to risk.

UNDP supports the countries of Europe and Central Asia in four thematic priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030): understanding disaster risk; disaster governance; investing in economic and social resilience; and improving response and recovery. UNDP works with national and local governments so they can develop practical measures to implement the Sendai Framework while ensuring disaster risk reduction becomes a national development priority. We help countries ensure that the capacities, skills and resources are in place to prevent, mitigate and prepare for disasters.

Addressing both hydro-meteorological and geophysical hazards, we work to:

  • Put in place policies and institutions that guide and enable risk-informed development
  • Strengthen community preparedness and mitigate urban disaster risks
  • Establish early warning systems
  • Strengthen infrastructure
  • Introduce international standards in national disaster damages and losses accounting systems
  • Promote a “Building back better” approach in recovery and response.

We believe that by undertaking risk-informed and resilient development, decades of hard work and costly development gains can be protected, and lives and livelihoods can be saved.

UNDP also co-hosts with UNICEF the regional coordination of the Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI) activities in the region, mobilizing UN and non-UN agencies in the region. CADRI is a global partnership composed of 20 organizations working towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by providing countries with capacity development services to help them reduce climate and disaster risk and connecting them to pool expertise.

CADRI has a strong history of engagement in Europe and Central Asia, starting with the support of the regional disaster risk management programme implemented by UNDP, the World Bank, UNDRR and WMO.  In the region the CADRI has engaged successfully in Kosovo (as per UN resolution 1244), Armenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Georgia and Turkey.

In 2022, UNDP led CADRI capacity diagnosis mission in the Kyrgyz Republic with a comprehensive overview of the strengths and gaps in the disaster risk management systems. More info available here.

What we do

Together with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Green Climate Fund and other multilateral and bilateral partners, UNDP is working to boost investments in disaster risk reduction, adaptation and ultimately, climate resilience

Understanding risks

Risk is exposure to danger — casualties, damaged property, lost livelihoods, disrupted economic activity, and damage to the environment — occurring in vulnerable conditions.

In order to manage disasters, countries must understand risk in all its dimensions. This involves conducting pre-disaster risk assessments, appraising necessary prevention and mitigation measures, and knowing how to develop effective disaster preparedness and response.

Risk assessments are fundamental to UNDP’s work on disaster risk reduction and recovery and require close collaboration among all parts of society. Besides the estimation of potential losses and their impact, risk assessment allows for the determination of the acceptable level of risk – the level of loss that is acceptable without destroying lives, the national economy or personal finances.

UNDP supports countries to make comprehensive assessments of natural disaster risks and to use them to create policies that work. We developed:

  • Disaster risk profiles for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, North Macedonia, Moldova and Serbia
  • Disaster risk reduction and climate change snapshots for all countries
  • Urban risk profiles for Central Asia, Southern Caucasus, Eastern and South-East Europe

 

Disaster risk governance 

Better governance protects development investments and ultimately builds people’s resilience. Strengthening institutions, legal frameworks and processes are key to better prevention, response and recovery.

 So far, our programmes have helped national and local authorities in 18 countries in the region to plan more effectively. In many countries, UNDP expanded its support from an almost exclusive focus on national disaster management authorities to engaging with a wider range of ministries, as well as development planning and budgeting apex agencies such as ministries of planning and finance.

Furthermore, UNDP engaged more systematically with civil society and non-governmental organizations. We’ve aimed to ensure:

  • Policy, institutional, and financing arrangements prioritize disaster risk reduction and put into place accountability mechanisms to follow through with their implementation.
  • Disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and environmental management and their related policy and institutional frameworks are pursued coherently by all branches of government.
  • Disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation are strongly connected to the broader poverty reduction agenda, with adequate incentives in line ministries and other units to make these connections.
  • The most vulnerable are able to inform policies by giving a better sense of needs on the ground
  • Reducing disaster and climate risks are sufficiently funded, leading to long-term interventions.

Furthermore, UNDP supports risk informed solutions to address the safe governance of uranium legacy sites in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, ensuring active engagement with local communities to reduce radioactivity risks to their health, livelihoods and environment.

 

Investing in disaster risk reduction

Disasters and the associated economic shocks pose a significant threat to human life and well-being, particularly for the poorest states and the most vulnerable people. A lack of resilience to disasters in both developed and developing economies poses an increasing threat to economic growth and global security. Therefore, countries seeking to mitigate these risks should prioritize funding for development that aims to build resilience and sustainability. Investing in preventing and reducing risk can help protect countries when disaster strikes. This investment can also be a driver of innovation, growth and job creation. Although they sometimes represent significant upfront investments, such measures are cost-effective and instrumental to save lives, prevent and reduce losses and ensure effective recovery and rehabilitation.

“If it's not risk informed, it's not sustainable”

Most UNDP disaster risk reduction projects support enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to ‘build back better’ in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. But fewer projects support investments that could reduce the human and economic risks of disasters before they strike.

Across the world, an estimated $6 trillion a year globally is to be spent on new infrastructure, such as roads, houses, schools, hospitals and energy and other public services to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Not only will much of this investment need to come from the private sector, but risk-proofing this infrastructure must be a top priority.

UNDP supports countries to increase investments in preventing and reducing risk and we:

  • Diversify financial instruments for reducing disaster risks
  • Involve private sector in disaster risk reduction and response

For example, in Armenia, we cooperated with Credit Agricole Bank to open special credit lines for farmers to procure hail protection equipment.

Integrated climate-resilient transboundary flood risk management in the Drin River basin in the Western Balkans explores the possibilities of fuller integration of flood insurance into the flood risk management, e. g. via cooperation between public and private flood insurance sectors.

In 2022, UNDP will further expand the developmental benefits of insurance and risk transfer solutions in the Europe and Central Asia region, by closely working with the UNDP Insurance Risk and Finance Facility (IRFF). Uzbekistan will serve as a pilot country in the region through a set of risk-financing solutions.

 

Response and recovery

Recovery is much more than returning to pre-disaster conditions. It means building physical and socio-economic resilience to disasters, through risk-informed land use planning and improved building standards. it means not only upgrading infrastructure with disaster resilient construction technologies but also introducing stronger institutions and processes, improving basic services, diversifying livelihoods and strengthening social protection for poor and vulnerable families.

In 2020 in close collaboration with UNDRR, UNDP conducted a study on the role and effectiveness of the National Disaster Management Authorities (NDMAs) in the response and recovery efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis across the region. Its findings will support UN, NDMAs and other stakeholders in the region to draw lessons from the implementation approach to the COVID-19 response and forward-looking recommendations for the prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response to the future pandemic/biohazards crisis incorporating best practices and lessons learnt, identified needs and resources, while ensuring the sustainability of the actions.

Furthermore, Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) tool has been adapted to the COVID-19 reality as a critical tool to develop an overall recovery strategy and cost estimates for short, medium and long-term recovery.

In 2022, UNDP will develop a pool of experts on PDNA who will not only continue the process of capacity building in the region but also serve in real time situations thorough deployment options if needed.

 

Chernobyl

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 1986 sent five percent of the radioactive reactor’s core into the atmosphere and upwind into Belarus, Ukraine and parts of Russia – contaminating over 150,000 sq km of the region. The radioactive material spread over a 30 km radius from the plant, leading to the creation of an “exclusion zone” on both sides of the Belarus-Ukrainian border – an area of 2,600 square kilometers that is not inhabitable by people to this day.

UNDP and the UN family have worked closely together to promote an integrated approach to address the development issues of the affected areas

In December 2016, the General Assembly declared 26 of April as “International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day”, as an important global acknowledgement of the importance of keeping the Chernobyl incident high on the global agenda, drawing lessons from the emergency and recovery responses, and sharing them globally for the benefit of current and future generations.

Building on the 2016 Secretary-General’s report on Chernobyl and in the context of Agenda 2030, UNDP has been supporting local and economic development, environment and local governance activities in the Chernobyl affected areas as part of its larger development programme in Belarus and Ukraine.

UNDP Belarus, with EU support and in close cooperation with local authorities, has been leading a transition from emergency relief and humanitarian assistance to capacity-building and sustainable development. By providing support to more than 200 initiatives, UNDP and partners help local communities get back on their feet and start taking on the challenges of today and tomorrow.

In the future, realizing the economic potential of the affected territories will depend upon stronger cooperation with the private sector – which UNDP is attempting to broker through social impact investment.

Since the beginning of the decade there has been a considerable increase in economic activity — 37,000 small- and medium-sized businesses now operate in the areas directly affected by the disaster, up from only 2,375 in 2002.