June 2014
1. Extreme inequality makes countries more vulnerable to conflict and violence :
 9 out of the 10 most unequal countries in the world are affected by conflict or fragility i
 Homicide rates are almost 4 times higher in countries with high levels of income inequality than in more equal societies ii
2. Disasters from natural hazards hit poor countries far harder than richer ones :
 81 per cent of disaster deaths are in low-income and lower-middle income countries
– even though they account for only 33 per cent of disasters iii
 86 per cent of deaths from flooding are in low-income and lower-middle income countries – compared to 4 per cent in high income counties iv
 In 2010, Haiti’s earthquake cost the country 160 per cent of its GDP. In 2011, Japan’s earthquake cost 3 per cent of its v
3. Disasters from natural hazards kill more women than men , particularly in major calamities: vi
 In the Asian tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 70 per cent of victims were women vii
4. Hardly any crisis gets the funding to meet everyone’s needs. But the amount given is extraordinarily unequal – driven not by need but in large part by unequal media coverage:
 For every $1 spent on a person affected by Haiti’s earthquake in 2010, viii 13 cents was spent on a person in need in South Sudan in 2013, ix 9 cents in Sudan, x and 4 cents in the Central African Republic xi
Ed Cairns 25 June 2014 i Comparing UNDP ’s Gini coefficient rankings and the OECD’s list of fragile states: https://data.undp.org/dataset/Income-Giniii coefficient/36ku-rvrj and http://www.oecd.org/dac/incaf/FSR-2014.pdf
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (2011) UN Global Study on Homicide : http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-andanalysis/statistics/Homicide/Globa_study_on_homicide_2011_web.pdf
iii UNDP and others, ‘Disaster risk reduction makes development sustainable’: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/crisis%20prevention/UNDP_CPR_CTA_20140901.pdf
iv Oxfam (2013), ‘How Disasters Disrupt Development’: http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/how-disasters-disruptdevelopment-recommendations-for-the-post-2015-development-306538 v
Ibid : based on estimated costs of $14 billion in Haiti and $200 billion in Japan, equivalent to 160 per cent and 3 per cent of respective countries’ GDP vi E. Neumayer and T Plümper (2007), ‘The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of
Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981 –2002: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment/whosWho/profiles/neumayer/pdf/Disastersarticle.pdf
vii
I keda (1995) „Gender Differences in Human Loss and Vulnerability in Natural Disasters: A Case
Study from Bangladesh ‟ , in Indian Journal of Gender Studies 2 (2): 171-193 viii Dollars given per person in Haiti = total amount of funding given in 2013: $3.52 billion
(http://fts.unocha.org/pageloader.aspx?page=emerg-emergencyDetails&appealID=893), divided by 2.1 billion (rough estimate of number of people affected: (https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/CAP/MYR_2010_Haiti_FA_SCREEN.pdf) = $1676 per person ix Dollars given per person in South Sudan = total amount of funding given in 2013: $947 million
(http://fts.unocha.org/pageloader.aspx?page=emerg-emergencyDetails&appealID=989), divided by 4.5 million in need
(https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/CAP/MYR_2013_South_Sudan.pdf) = $212 x Dollars given per person in Sudan = total amount of funding given in 2013: $625 million divided by 4.4 million in need
(https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/CAP/MYR_2013_Sudan_Workplan.pdf) = $145 per person xi Dollars given per person in CAR = total amount of funding given in 2013: $162 million
(http://fts.unocha.org/pageloader.aspx?page=emerg-emergencyDetails&appealID=979), divided by 2.2 million in need https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/CAP/HNO_2014_CAR.pdf = $76.36 per person
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