Underinvesting in disaster prevention and choosing to pay much more after the damage has been done, makes no sense: PGA

Underinvesting in disaster prevention and preparedness and choosing to pay much more after the damage has been done and lives have been lost, makes no sense, says President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Abdulla Shahid.

He made this remark at the Midterm Review plenary discussion of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, held on Thursday.

Highlighting that the annual occurrence of disasters rose from an average of 90 to 100 between 1970 and 2,000 and to about 350 to 500 in the last 20 years, PGA Shahid stressed that the number of disastrous incidents may approach 600 annually by 2030 if the current trends continue.

He said that there are lives lost, livelihoods eliminated, lives set back and development gains erased for each of these occurrences.

Noting that beyond the tragedies that ensue there are clear economic reasons to act, the PGA said that economic losses from disasters have more than doubled over the past 30 years, reaching over USD 170 billion per year in the decade ending in 2020.

The PGA, also the foreign minister of Maldives, made a few suggestions including exponentially increasing investments in disaster risk reduction, particularly in developing countries.

As such, he noted that official development assistance continues to play a critical role in the budgets and programming of government partners, at all levels, for Least Developed States, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

However, despite this need, disaster specific funding constitutes a relatively small portion of ODA, said the PGA, who went on to note that slightly more than 10 percent of the nearly USD 1.2 trillion in ODA provided since 2010, was related to disaster risk reduction.

However, just a little over USD five billion was allocated for pre-disaster risk prevention and preparedness, with the lion’s share of funding going towards post-disaster efforts, including relief, response and recovery, he said.

As a second suggestion, he said that investments must be expanded and mainstreamed across all sectors to address the risks that are surfacing.

PGA Shahid stated that Covid-19 has taught the world that there is an urgent need to adopt multi-hazard disaster risk reduction strategies that span all sectors, including risks emanating from biological and health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlighting that “impressive” results have been observed in passing policies and laws around disaster risk reduction, as well as establishing disaster risk reduction entities, PGA Shahid stressed that these continue to revolve around the more traditional threats.

PGA Shahid stressed that progress cannot be measures only in terms of shelters built or early warning systems established, urging to be more ambitious and more nuanced than this.

He also urged to weigh the costs of climate impacts on each and every sector and industry, to look at the social benefits of building resilience in health, education and citizen engagement as well as to consider the costs to biodiversity and ecosystems.

With this being said, he urged the governments and stakeholders to renew their commitments to the implementation of the Sendai Framework and specifically, to make every effort to mainstream risk reduction and resilience across the entirety of Agenda 2030.

He said that by pairing together the SDGs and Sendai, as well as the Paris Agreement, the world can make progress on each of the frameworks concurrently and protect those investments in the process, ensuring they are not “wiped away” by the next storm, or the next virus.