1 March 2018 – The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today announced the beginning of an historic effort to collect comprehensive data on disaster losses as UN Member States implement the global plan for reducing such losses, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The newly appointed UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, today said: “It is impossible to prevent disasters and to manage risk if a country is not measuring its disaster losses, particularly at the local level, for both small-scale and large-scale events. Such losses are a great setback for efforts to eradicate poverty.”

Today sees the launch of the Sendai Framework Monitor, a tested online tool designed to capture data on achievement of five targets agreed by UN Member States: reducing mortality from disasters, reducing the numbers of disaster affected people, reducing economic losses, reducing damage to critical infrastructure and recording the number of countries with national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction.

In a statement to mark the launch, Ms. Mizutori said: “The Sendai Framework Monitor will provide inputs to the first report on achieving progress on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in July. “In a world where climate change and extreme weather events contribute to pushing 26 million people into poverty every year, improving how we manage risk is vital and this requires a deeper understanding of where these losses are occurring and not just for major internationally recorded events. The silent, small-recurring events such as floods and droughts can take a huge toll on communities which lack essential health services and other coping capacities.”