Swiss official urges nations to invest more in disaster risk reduction

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Speaking at the opening of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction meeting in Geneva, Manuel Sager, director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), urged officials from 150 countries and experts from the private and public sectors to invest more in disaster prevention and preparedness.    

“Funding to prevent disasters is much more cost-effective than dealing with the consequences of disasters,” he said on Wednesday. “Each dollar invested in risk reduction prevents the loss of $4 dollars.”  

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To coincide with the start of the three-day conference, hosted by Switzerland, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) released a biennial disaster assessment report warning of the “new, emerging, and much larger threats” to human life and property, including air pollution, diseases, earthquakes, drought and climate change.  

The study highlighted the growing potential for one disaster to produce or exacerbate another, as heavy rains trigger landslides and mudslides following wildfires or periods of long drought.  

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Examining the seven targets set out in the Sendai Framework for DRR, adopted by UN member states in 2015, [Mami Mizutori, Special Representaive of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction,] said progress had been “regular” but “insufficient”. For example, less than half of states have put in place a national strategy for disaster risk reduction – a target to be met by 2020.   

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