untitled design

UN: People do not spend enough to prevent disasters

Nations are spending very little on disaster prevention in the face of rising global disasters, from floods in South Africa to record heatwaves in India, according to Bloomberg.

Of the $ 133 billion available to finance disasters from 2010 to 2019, only 4% went to risk reduction, with the rest spent on more costly post-disaster responses, Mami Mizutori said in an interview. Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

“This is the new disaster risk landscape,” Mizutori said ahead of a global disaster risk reduction forum in Bali. “We live in a world of multiple risks with deteriorating effects and we need to invest more in prevention.”

This lack of funding comes at a time when countries are facing natural disasters and geopolitical conflicts after years of fighting the pandemic. Developing countries bear the brunt of disaster losses at 1% of gross domestic product each year, threatening to cancel their hard-earned financial gains. This percentage drops to just 0.1% -0.3% for developed countries.

The UN agency is in talks with lenders and donors to shift more funds to disaster prevention, including boosting infrastructure resilience, Mizutori said. It is a difficult compromise for the beneficiary nations that are pushing for short-term development needs and facing potentially greater losses if disasters strike.

“We need to stop looking at things not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of quality, and that needs the guts of both the donor community and the recipient community,” he said.

Source: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular