LIVES LOST and the economic toll of natural calamities could worsen in low and lower middle-income countries in the Asia Pacific, such as the Philippines, as disasters become “more frequent and intense,” the United Nations (UN) regional development arm warned in a report released yesterday.

The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2017 of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) provides data showing that disasters in recent years left more severe damages on nations that have the least capacity to prepare or respond to such events.

Between 2000 to 2015, for example, “the low- and lower middle-income countries in the region experienced almost 15 times more disaster deaths than the region’s high-income countries.”

The ESCAP research indicates that “between 2015 and 2030, 40% of global economic losses from disasters will be in Asia and the Pacific, while the region accounts for around 36% of global GDP (gross domestic product). It also shows that future natural disasters may have greater destructive potential.”

UN ESCAP said the aftermath of the series of recent calamities — such as typhoons, torrential monsoons, and earthquakes as well as weather disturbances like the El Niño — demonstrate that “disaster risk is outpacing resilience in Asia-Pacific, the most disaster-prone region in the world.”

The Philippines, for one, is struck by an average of 20 typhoons a year and sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of frequent volcanic and seismic activities.

Between 2013 and 2015, according to the report, 15 million people in the Philippines were displaced due to natural disasters, accounting for almost 25% of the global total of 60.4 million. Of the worldwide displacement, 52.7 million were in the Asia-Pacific region.

INSURANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, ESCAP executive secretary and UN undersecretary-general, underscored the need for countries, along with collective efforts within the region, to strengthen early warning systems, build disaster-resilient infrastructure, and introduce more innovative sources of disaster risk financing to protect people’s livelihoods.

The Philippines, for instance, lost some 800,000 tons of rice in 2014 due to the drought brought about by the El Niño phenomenon.

“Disasters can very quickly strip poor people of their livelihoods bringing deeply disruptive impacts that push them back into absolute poverty or trap them in an intergenerational transmission of poverty. Developing cost-effective financing is needed to decrease the existing resilience gaps,” said Ms. Akhtar in a statement.

“The absence of an institutionalized insurance culture and adequate post disaster financing threaten our extraordinary economic and developmental achievements,” she added.

Ms. Akhtar, in the report’s foreword section, also pointed out that natural disasters can destroy the “work and investment” not just of communities, but of governments and development organizations.

“That is why the principle of the disaster resilience is central to the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals. If these goals are to be achieved, then all new infrastructure should be capable of withstanding extreme natural disasters to enable people to escape and survive,” she said.

“Yet the Sustainable Development Goals have another critical stipulation. They are to be achieved not just for most people, but for everyone. The objective is to ‘leave no one behind.’” — MSJ

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR