Bangkok--3 Nov--ESCAP
Senior experts from governments, academia andinternational organizations this week reached a milestone towards betterdisaster risk management in Asia and the Pacific, at a United Nations ledmeeting in Sendai, Japan. Concerned by the frequency of natural disastersoccurring in the region, the experts agreed on the core principles forestablishing a common basic range of disaster-related statistics.
Over the past three decades, almost 1.2 million people in Asia and thePacific have lost their lives to disasters, and efforts to manage disasterrisks in Asia and the Pacific, as well as in the rest of the world, havelong been hampered by the lack of timely, reliable, and comparablestatistics, mainly due to the absence of common standards.
Earlier this year, governments of the region decided to act to close thisgap and established the Expert Group on Disaster-related Statistics in Asiaand the Pacific. Developing a set of common standards would allow moreprecise risk assessment across the region and help governments in
evidence-based policymaking which provides the right support andinfrastructure to manage the risks of disasters.
The group’s first meeting was held in Sendai, from 27 to 29 October 2014 bythe United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia (ESCAP), theTohoku University and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), incollaboration with the Government of Japan and the United Nations Officefor Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
In his opening remarks, Mr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Director of ESCAP’s Eastand North-East Asia Office (ESCAP-ENEA) said: "With climate change, thefrequency and severity of extreme weather events are expected to rise. Thismeans, there is a tremendous need for better disaster risk management forsociety and the environment."
Ms. Shamika Sirimanne, Director of ESCAP’s Information and CommunicationsTechnology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division emphasized: “The success ofthe post-2015 sustainable development agenda highly depends on disasterrisk reduction. Previous development gains, particularly in low incomecountries, are often rolled back due to natural disasters.”
Mr. Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, Director of ESCAP’s Statistics Division added:“Agreeing on a basic range of disaster related statistics, which the ExpertGroup has taken the first step towards this week, will be a majorcontribution from Asia and the Pacific region to establishingaccountability and monitoring frameworks for the post-2015 developmentagenda.”
Professor Susumu Satomi, President of Tohoku University also highlightedthe importance of internationally agreed standards for official statistics,stating that: “Without statistical standards, governments can only inferbut have no way to determine with certainty the extent to which disaster
events inflict damage and losses to the hard-earned fruit of development intheir countries.”
Responding to the call by governments of the region, the Expert Group set aplan to urgently develop agreed statistical standards suitable for theregion on the occurrence and impacts of disasters suitable for the regionby 2016.
For further information, contact:
Ms. Katie Elles, Public Information Officer, Strategic Communications and
Advocacy Section, ESCAP, T: (66) 2 288 1865 / E:
[email protected]