An ad hoc working group comprising several members of the IRDR Science Committee (SC) and experts associated with the Programme, prepared an Issue Brief: Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development (2013) to inform the discussions of the United Nations General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals. The OWG will hold its seventh session in New York, from 6-10 January 2014. 

The brief addresses the increasing recognition on the part of governments that the reduction of disaster risks is a foundation for successful sustainable development, and that disaster risk is a crosscutting issue, requiring action across multiple sectors.

Issue Brief: Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development

Scientific research and practitioner experience have revealed that disasters, development and poverty are intimately linked. Destruction of assets and livelihoods in disasters set back hard-won development gains and worsen poverty, often for extended periods of years[i]. Progress in ending extreme poverty may be reversed in the face of a disaster event and poverty re-entrenched. Disaster impacts are growing, amplified by rapid growth and unsustainable development practices that increase the exposure and vulnerabilities of communities and capital assets. Governments increasingly recognise that the reduction of disaster risks is a foundation for successful sustainable development, and that disaster risk is a crosscutting issue, requiring action across multiple sectors.

The ICSU/IRDR Issue Brief was the first background document to appear within the disaster risk reduction cluster ahead of the OWG’s Seventh Session, held in New York, USA, 6-10 January 2014.

Read the full brief here [PDF 693 KB]

---