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April 28, 2022

Anna Murray 

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) released the Global Assessment Report (GAR2022) ahead of the Global Platform on Risk Reduction in May, revealing that between 350 and 500 medium to large-scale disasters occurred every year during the last two decades. By 2030, the number of disaster incidents is expected to reach 560 per year, or 1.5 every day, according to statistics.

The research, titled "Our World at Risk: Transforming Governance for a Resilient Future," showed that disaster risk reduction policies, as outlined in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, had reduced the number of people affected and died by disasters in the previous decade.

Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, who presented the report at the UN headquarters in New York, emphasized that the world needs to do more to include catastrophe risk into how we live, construct, and invest, which is putting humanity on a path to self-destruction.

Furthermore, Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the United Nations Development Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), stated that disasters can be avoided if countries invest the time and resources necessary to understand and reduce their risks. With the review ongoing, this report should serve as a wake-up call to governments that action across the Framework's four goals must be accelerated in order to halt the trend of growing disasters.