By Samuel Ssebuliba.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has embarked on a historic new effort to collect comprehensive global data on disaster losses.
Mami Mizutori, the Secretary-General’s newly appointed Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction says it is impossible to prevent disasters and to manage risk if a country is not measuring its disaster losses, particularly at the local level.
The Sendai Frameworkfor Disaster Risk Reduction online tool captures data on the achievement of the Framework’s five targets including reducing mortality from disasters, the numbers of disaster affected people and economic losses;
She says in a world where climate change and extreme weather events contribute to pushing 26 million people into poverty every year, improving how risks is managed is vital and requires a deeper understanding of where these losses are occurring.