UN disaster reduction strategy an unmitigated failure

Ministers, civil servants and UN representatives will meet this week in Kobe, Japan for the UN's World Conference on Disaster Reduction. They will conduct a 10-year review of their strategy for disaster reduction. Meanwhile, the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor Sir David King called for the creation of a new global disaster research agency.

However, a new report from the Sustainable Development Network -- Disasters and development* -- shows that the UN strategy is an unmitigated failure. The study concludes that the UN strategy has done nothing to reduce the impact of natural disasters. Indeed, the UN seems so far removed from reality that it claims that an increase in discussion of natural disasters is a sign of success! Yet talk-fests such as the WCDR are probably making things worse by diverting attention away from the real causes.

The Sustainable Development Network study observes that people in wealthier areas of Asia struck by the recent tsunami fared relatively better than their poorer counterparts, not only experiencing fewer deaths and injuries but also being in a much better position to rebuild the local economy.

The study concludes that people in wealthy countries are much more resilient to natural disasters because they can afford robust buildings, infrastructure and insurance. When a disaster strikes, they recover far more quickly from economic losses. Wealthy countries in Asia, such as Japan, have developed technologies that spare human lives when disasters such as tsunamis occur.

By contrast, people in poor countries lack the wealth and technologies that would enable them to cope with disasters – and as a result disasters turn into tragedies. For the same reason, they also suffer much higher rates of premature death from disease. The underlying cause of both is a vicious circle of poverty, oppression and corruption.

The United Nations seems to be aware that poor people are far more vulnerable to disasters: "While only 11 per cent of people exposed to natural hazards live in low human development countries," reads the UN's 10-year review of the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World, "they account for more than 53 per cent of total recorded deaths." But its 'solutions' – bureaucratic 'methodologies', 'policy frameworks' and more government-to-government aid – have failed to address the underlying problem in the decade since the Yokohama conference.

Commenting on the proposed new research agency proposed by Sir David King, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, a member of the Sustainable Development Network, commented "The last thing the world needs is another politicised UN agency researching the cause of disasters. The poor need economic development, not more bureaucracy."

The Sustainable Development Network believes that the best way to eliminate underlying vulnerability to disasters is to empower people in poor countries through the institutions of the free society: property rights, contracts, the rule of law and effective legal systems, open trade and good governance. These institutions promote economic growth and technological progress, leading to a virtuous circle of empowerment and development. The WCDR would serve the world's people much better if it were to advocate policies that favoured such institutions.

*Disasters and development, published 17 January 2005