Official statement of the UN office for disaster risk reduction to the UN environment assembly
OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE UN OFFICE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION TO THE UN ENVIRONMENT ASSEMBLY
15 March 2019
DELIVERED BY MAMI MZUTORI – THE SECRETARY-GENERAL’S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
Distinguished delegates,
Economic losses from disasters have risen dramatically with the doubling of extreme weather events over the last 20 years.
These events hit the agriculture sector particularly hard and affect the well-being of many of the 2.5 billion small-scale farmers who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
The agriculture sector absorbs 25 percent of the recorded damage and losses caused by climate-related hazards in developing countries. And drought causes 80% of this damage.
There is a lot of uncertainty about the actual economic costs as a recent study by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction shows that there is no reliable economic data available for 87% of disasters recorded in low income countries over the last twenty years.
Improved data collection on economic losses is vital to improved understanding of how disaster risk reduction practices - including safeguarding of protective eco-systems and investment in climate-smart agriculture - can pay a resilience dividend.
This is one reason why the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction places so much emphasis on supporting government efforts to create and maintain national disaster loss databases which open a window on how, and where, losses are occurring as a first step towards prevention and targeted investment.
Preliminary findings from a study across regions by the Food and Agriculture Organization shows that investing in DRR technologies at farm level is a way to easily reduce risk exposure and enhance the resilience of farming families to natural hazards.
These include a number of innovative approaches to crop selection and infrastructure. On average, the net economic benefits from improved farm level DRR good practices are about 2.5 times higher than the usual practices adopted by farmers, livestock raisers and fishers.
They can include early maturing rice varieties to reduce production losses due to dry spells and floods. Or the indoor production of mushrooms in drylands.
Rooftop water harvesting and water storage tanks for vegetable production have proven to be successful in drought-affected areas.
Studies undertaken for the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Global Assessment Reports confirm that drought risk is intimately linked to poverty and rural vulnerability.
Poor rural households that are dependent on rain-fed subsistence agriculture, are plunged deeper into poverty when the rains fail. They are often people who have been forced to occupy marginal drought-exposed land, unable to access basic irrigation technology or drought-resistant seeds.
Water storage facilities are severely under-developed in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa in particular. One study demonstrated that sub-Saharan Africa has an average storage capacity of 200 cubic metres per year per capita compared to 1,277 cubic metres for Thailand and 5,961 for North America.
Over ten years ago, the total capital needs for the development of adequate water infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa for 2006-2015 were estimated to be approximately $15 billion which would have been a very good investment in disaster risk reduction given the huge numbers of drought-affected people in region.
Even in years without an El Niño episode, drought risk will become greater in a warming world. This underlines further the need for adequate levels of investment in water storage facilities as a basic tool for reducing agricultural drought risk.
There are challenges and opportunities for realizing the benefits of DRR good practices for both agriculture and the environment at a larger scale.
I am here today to advocate for greater inclusion of these practices in national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction.
When UN member States adopted the global plan for reducing disaster losses – the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015 – they included a target to have such strategies in place by next year.
These strategies will be aligned with measures for adaptation to climate change and the achievement of the SDGs, particularly the eradication of poverty and building resilient communities.
Just how important the promotion of resilient agriculture practices has become is demonstrated by the fact that the UN General Assembly has included agricultural loss in a set of 38 indicators for measuring progress on achieving the seven targets of the Sendai Framework.
Agricultural loss comes under Sendai Framework target (c) on reducing direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
Agriculture is understood to include the crops, livestock, fisheries, apiculture, aquaculture and forest sectors as well as associated facilities and infrastructure.
In many countries most vulnerable to natural hazard-induced disasters, agriculture is the main source of both livelihoods and food security, and a key driver of economic growth.
Of all natural hazards, climate-related hazards such as droughts, floods and storms affect the agriculture sector the most.
Such events can be further exacerbated by unsustainable farming practices that include deforestation, slash and burn agriculture and mono-culture exploitation of the soil for short-term gains which can bring long-term grief.
Returning to my earlier point about the importance of national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction, these should be viewed as instruments of governance.
As the Executive Director of UNEP points out in her report to this UN Environment Assembly, governance instruments can create a cultural framework in which innovation thrives.
These strategies if well-aligned with the Priorities for Action of the Sendai Framework, can address several key drivers of disaster risk including climate change and environmental degradation, in a meaningful way at the local level.
Reducing disaster risk and adaptation to climate change in ways that respect the environment, must go hand in hand.
Maximizing sustainable agricultural productivity means shifting towards sustainable food systems which are risk-informed such as those recommended by the FAO and others.
The importance of this has never been greater. Record-breaking temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent and severe droughts and floods caused by climate change are already affecting ecosystems, agriculture and society's ability to produce the food we need.
Since 2014, the number of people facing chronic food deprivation has been steadily increasing, reaching nearly 821 million in 2017. These are levels which have not been seen for over a decade.
Hunger, chronic poverty and the effects of climate change demand that we step up our efforts to reduce disaster risk and drought risk in particular.
The failure to do so can only lead to more suffering, damage to the environment, political turmoil and exacerbate the already chronic problem of displacement caused by extreme weather events.
Thank you for your attention.