UN/ISDR has launched a report by Development Initiatives titled “Disaster Risk Reduction: Spending Where It Should Count,” which urges donors to re-examine their priorities to ensure adequate spending on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation.
20 March 2012: The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) has launched a report by Development Initiatives, titled “Disaster Risk Reduction: Spending Where It Should Count.” The report highlights that the economic cost of disasters has broken the “trillion dollar ceiling” this century.
The report examines the levels of donor investment in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the top 40 humanitarian recipients over the last ten years, and compares and contrasts these totals with overall aid figures. It qualifies funding for DRR as “very weak,” with only US$3.7 billion out of a total US$363 billion of ODA in the 40 countries surveyed, representing just 1% of development aid. The report urges donors to re-examine their priorities to ensure adequate spending on DRR and climate change adaptation.
According to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, the disparity in development aid is partly “explained by geopolitical strategic interests.” She urged donors to ensure that DRR and climate adaptation spending is “in line with the needs” of countries. [UN/ISDR Press Release] [Publication: Disaster Risk Reduction: Spending Where it Counts] [UN Press Release]