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World

Community Preparedness and Risk Reduction Annual Report 2014 (MAA00021)

Attachments

Overview

The process of developing the post-2015 framework for DRR (HFA2) went ahead in tandem with preparations for the World Conference on DRR (WCDRR) in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015. The 1st and 2nd PrepCom meetings of the WCDRR took place in Geneva in July and November 2014. Suggested elements for HFA2 were issued by UNISDR in June for consultation at the first meeting of the Preparatory Committee of WCDRR in July. Then the zero draft of the Post-2015 Framework for DRR was discussed at the 2nd PrepCom meeting. The discussion on the draft framework continued till December 2014. 2014 was a year of busy consultation for the post-2015 global frameworks for DRR, sustainable development and climate change; it also witnessed the increasing challenges and risks for the humanity.

The Fourth Global Community Resilience Forum (GCRF) was held in in Cali, Colombia, on 4-7 November. It discussed the issues and challenges to scaling up; mobilizing resources; and communications & advocacy for effective community resilience programming. The forum made a strong call for action, namely, the Cali ‘One Billion Coalition for Resilience’. The coalition pursues the goal of taking active steps towards enhancing community resilience, together with one billion people, by 2025.

Climate change increases disaster risk for millions of vulnerable people around the world and compromises people’s ability to sustain their sources of livelihood, especially in poor and under-developed countries. It also triggers events of unprecedented magnitude, rendering the current humanitarian response capacity ineffective, with dramatic consequences for those affected. Climate change and rapid urbanisation are amongst the most significant phenomena of the 21st century. Today more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, with an additional two billion urban residents expected in the next 20 years. Much of the population growth is expected in small and medium-sized cities in developing countries. Many cities and urban areas are at risk of hurricanes, cyclones, flooding, earthquakes and epidemics, as well as crime, fires and industrial accidents.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Working Group II and III new Assessment Reports respectively in March and April 2014. These reports indicate that risks have already increased and tend to be on the rise with greater impact on the most vulnerable and require us to do more to reduce the risks we face today. The COP21 in Paris in 2015 will be an important milestone in reaching a new global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emission because, if it continues in the current space, it will make adaptation meaningless in more and more places and worsen the humanitarian consequences.

Chronic and acute food insecurity and malnutrition remain key obstacles to reaching targets in the development agenda. According to the FAO’s State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 report, there are almost 805 million people chronically undernourished. This represents 12 percent of the world’s population, or one in eight people, of which nearly 791 million (98.3%) live in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people undernourished has been growing since the 1990s, although the increase has slowed in the current decade. Due to that, Sub Saharan Africa has remained a priority area for humanitarian and development agencies. In the Sahel over 20 million people are facing food shortages and 2.8 million have been displaced from their homes by violence. Projections indicate that in 2015, 5.8 million children under five will suffer from global acute malnutrition, of whom 1.4 million will suffer from severe acute malnutrition and 4.4 million from moderate acute malnutrition. On average, one out of three children in the Sahel suffers from stunting. UN launched a joint ‘’Strategic Response Plan”, which includes some Red Cross Red Crescent activities, to reach the prioritized 11.8 million people by mobilizing USD 2.2 billion for three years 2014-2016. However, the appeal coverage has been very low.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and National Societies have steadily increased the DRR programmes1 in terms of spending and number of people reached. In 2014, the total DRR spending by the IFRC and National Societies was approximately CHF 151.7 million. It indicates that the DRR investment is more than double compared to the 2009. The number of vulnerable people reached has increased from 13.5 million in 2009 to 31.2 million in 2014. The report from 121 countries indicates National Societies are engaged in DRR programmes including (CBDRR, climate change, food security, nutrition, livelihoods and community & NS preparedness). Compared with that of the 2013, the investment has grown by 24% while the population reached increased by 21.9%. The average per capita investment is CHF 4.85.