World Bank: UK and UN lead call to prepare for disasters
Today, Britain and the United Nations are bringing together influential global leaders to help make the world more resilient to natural disasters.
The聽event is being chaired by聽International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell and Helen Clark of the United Nations Development Programme,聽and will tackle the lack of investment in preparing for the rising number and intensity聽of natural disasters.
The meeting聽will聽mobilise聽leading figures from governments,聽international aid agencies聽and insurance聽during the .听
The UK will call on other nations and aid agencies to focus their skills and resources on helping the poorest to prepare and plan for future natural disasters.
In today鈥檚 meeting the group will discuss how to:
- Significantly聽increase finance and support for vulnerable countries to聽manage the potential impacts of disasters better.
- Provide long-term resilience in the Horn and Sahel regions of Africa, securing a commitment from wealthy nations to help build longer term resilience to drought.
- Stimulate private sector investment in developing profitable technology and products to tackle the inevitable impacts of climate change. For example, drought-resistant maize is already reducing the risk of crop failure and helping to feed 300 million people, but further investment is needed to make crops more resilient to extreme weather.听 It will also include extending insurance services to聽farmers and small businesses who are at increasing risk from natural disasters.
**Tomorrow鈥檚 world technology **
Earlier this month the UK Government announced a - for example using mobile phone 鈥榓pps鈥� and social media to help those affected.
New figures show that last year 302 disasters affected over 206 million people. It was also the most expensive year聽with estimated losses of over $350 billion.
Experts predict that by 2015 climate-related disasters such as floods, droughts and famines are expected聽 to affect an average of over 375 million people every year. Growing food insecurity is also聽likely to create new humanitarian emergencies as it did in East Africa last year.
Yet at present, only 1% of international aid is spent on disaster resilience. Britain will embed disaster resilience in all of its country aid programmes by 2015 and聽Andrew Mitchell will encourage others to take similar measures.