1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
[O3-7-01] The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019: Pathways for resilience, inclusion and empowerment
Keywords:The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report
The Asia-Pacific region faces a daunting spectrum of natural hazards. Many countries could be reaching a tipping point beyond which disaster risk, fueled by climate change, exceeds their capacity to respond. This session will explore the findings of The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019, which captures the full complexity of disaster risk in the region for the first time and introduces policy actions for strengthening disaster resilience.
Representatives from ESCAP will present the regional ‘riskscape’ introduced by the Report. This reveals that annual economic losses are quadruple previous estimates, at US $ 675 billion a year until 2030. The risks are distributed unevenly across the region, clustered around four transboundary disaster risk hotspots in which environmental fragility converges with critical socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the report demonstrates how disasters are widening inequalities in incomes and opportunities, thereby threatening hard won development gains.
In a second presentation, representatives from ESCAP will then outline the policy actions introduced by the Report, to break the links between disasters, poverty and inequality. It will demonstrate that governments can outpace disaster risk through a comprehensive portfolio of risk-informed social sector investments and innovative pro-poor disaster risk reduction measures. Similarly, it will showcase how emerging technologies such as big data and digital identities are being applied to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable groups are included in these policy interventions. Finally, it will outline the potential for strengthened regional cooperation to reinforce national efforts.
The session will then proceed with a series of presentations in which organizations and researchers will provide feedback on the findings from their perspectives. This will inform a subsequent open discussion, wherein participants will consider how the policy actions introduced by the report can be used to strengthen the resilience across the riskscape.
Representatives from ESCAP will present the regional ‘riskscape’ introduced by the Report. This reveals that annual economic losses are quadruple previous estimates, at US $ 675 billion a year until 2030. The risks are distributed unevenly across the region, clustered around four transboundary disaster risk hotspots in which environmental fragility converges with critical socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the report demonstrates how disasters are widening inequalities in incomes and opportunities, thereby threatening hard won development gains.
In a second presentation, representatives from ESCAP will then outline the policy actions introduced by the Report, to break the links between disasters, poverty and inequality. It will demonstrate that governments can outpace disaster risk through a comprehensive portfolio of risk-informed social sector investments and innovative pro-poor disaster risk reduction measures. Similarly, it will showcase how emerging technologies such as big data and digital identities are being applied to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable groups are included in these policy interventions. Finally, it will outline the potential for strengthened regional cooperation to reinforce national efforts.
The session will then proceed with a series of presentations in which organizations and researchers will provide feedback on the findings from their perspectives. This will inform a subsequent open discussion, wherein participants will consider how the policy actions introduced by the report can be used to strengthen the resilience across the riskscape.