UN Plan of Action 2023 Progress Report

Commitment 1

Strenghten system-wide coherence in support of the Sendai Framework and other agreements, through a risk/informed and integrated approach.

Commitment 2

Build UN system capacity to deliver coordinated, high-quality support to countries on disaster risk reduction.

Commitment 3

Ensure disaster risk reduction remains a strategic priority for UN Partners.

Commitment 1: Strengthen system-wide coherence in support of the Sendai Framework and other agreements through a risk-informed and integrated approach

Commitment 2: Build UN system capacity to deliver coordinated, high- quality support to countries on disaster risk reduction.

Commitment 3: Disaster risk reduction remains a strategic priority for UN organizations

Risk-inform humanitarian, development and peace actions

• UNDRR and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) supported risk analysis and risk-informed planning workshops in six Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) countries.
• Joint analysis exercises shaped CCAs in South Sudan and Haiti by integrating foresight elements.
• Opportunities for synergies between disaster risk reduction and peacebuilding were explored by the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and UNDRR in a Peace Dialogue under the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force 4.

Invest in disaster risk reduction and reform the financial system to better consider risks

• A session on disaster risk reduction financing and investment shared experiences, technical knowledge and guidance to strengthen support to countries. Discussions informed updates to the CCA guidance for all UN Country Teams.
• The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UNDRR developed guidance on Integrated National Financing Framework for DRR.

Boost inclusive disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation

• 59 countries shared disaggregated data following advocacy and capacity-building efforts from UN entities, advancing disaster statistics.
• Guiding questions for child-responsive DRR were included in the 2023 UN Plan of Action template to improve reporting.
• A session on mainstreaming child-responsive DRR was organized with UN DRR focal points. Good practices were shared, including the Today & Tomorrow Initiative by UNICEF.
• UNICEF developed a child-responsive disaster risk reduction video for the 2023 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, showcasing its importance in resilience building and advancing children’s rights.

Strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems

• The Early Warning for All (EW4All) initiative, led by UNDRR and the World Meteorological Ogranization (WMO) was launched in 21 countries, mainly Small island developing States (SIDS) and Least developed country (LDCs).
• Roadmaps for strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems built on existing mechanisms have been completed or are under way in 17 countries.
• UNDRR and WMO developed an EW4All dashboard to track progress and measure success.

By the end of 2023, 80 per cent of governments have been supported in developing or updating national DRR strategies. Progress must be accelerated to ensure full coverage of support over the next two years. This finding stresses the need to strengthen risk governance at the national and local levels, in line with the political declaration of the high-level meeting on the midterm review of the Sendai Framework (A/RES/77/289).

UNDP has downscaled climate change data through the Digital Climate Atlas of Serbia, making it accessible to local autonomous governments and other stakeholders. This platform supports evidence-based decision-making and vulnerability assessments for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction across key sectors such as agriculture, energy, and infrastructure.

The graph on the left-side, shows the number and percentage of governments supported in the development or updating of  their national DRR strategy from 2019 to 2023, showcasing a slight deceleration over the last years.

In 2023, disaster and climate risk reduction and resilience building elements were systematically integrated into UNSDCFs, CCAs, HNOs and HRPs, reflecting the growing recognition of the interconnectedness of climate, disaster risks and peace and security. This trend underscores the importance of linking climate, peace and security concerns in the UN's work, especially in fragile contexts.

The analysis of the Somalia Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) pointed to the positive effect of development actors’ involvement in the humanitarian planning processes and suggests that in-depth risk analysis and subsequent planning support leads to stronger planning documents.

All UNSDCFs signed in 2023 included DRR and resilience considerations, with 94 per cent incorporating these elements into the results framework in their outcomes, outputs and/or indicators, demonstrating the UN's commitment to embedding climate and disaster risk information across all stages of planning. This integration also extended to Humanitarian Needs and Response Plans (HNOs/HRPs/HNRPs), with 37 per cent fully incorporating DRR elements, showing that risk-informed planning is becoming more embedded in both humanitarian and development efforts.

Gender equality and inclusion

Seventeen out of the 31 UN organizations (55 per cent) reporting on gender equality and women’s empowerment and leadership confirmed that they had implemented DRR, resilience or recovery initiatives with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment and leadership in 2023. 

Efforts should be made to further increase the sex, age and disability disaggregation of data collected to enable better targeting of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and resilience building interventions.

The development of the Sendai GAP in 2023, available for download on the right, demonstrates the momentum towards accelerating gender-responsive DRR to substantially decrease gender-related disaster risk by 2030.

The Sendai GAP aims to accelerate progress towards the mutually reinforcing goals of gender equality and the prevention and reduction of disaster risk by ensuring DRR efforts are gender-responsive, and promote and support women’s empowerment and leadership.