January 2013: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has released a report on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and financing, titled “Investing in Resilience: Ensuring a Disaster-Resistant Future.” The report encourages governments and development partners to adopt a coordinated approach to resilience.

The report notes the need in regions most vulnerable to climate change for actions to strengthen resilience to be implemented within an integrated disaster risk management (DRM) framework that includes, among other things, climate change adaptation.

The ADB notes that disaster losses are increasing more quickly in Asia than other regions, including due to environmental degradation, climate change and demographic pressures. To offer tools and strategies to assess, reduce and manage risk, the report is organized into four sections on: disasters and development – instruments and mechanisms for strengthened resilience; visions of the future – overcoming gaps and obstacles; financing residual risk; and achieving resilience.

The report identifies eight “critical next steps,” under the following five categories of action: policy change; risk assessment; financing; private sector engagement; and knowledge management. These critical steps include the establishment by governments and regional associations of an open-source, regional, online information platform to facilitate the development, exchange, and dissemination of hazard and risk data, including climate change modelling.

Noting a continuing trend of rising disaster losses, the ADB urges governments to “ensure that each dollar spent on development is spent just once, not repeatedly as development gains are undone by disaster.” [ADB Press Release] [Publication: Investing in Resilience : Ensuring a Disaster-Resistant Future]