STRENGTHENING DISASTER RESILIENCE IN SMALL ISLAND DEVELOPING STATES
UNISDR’s Contribution to the SIDS 2014 Bureau
I. Context
Disaster risk reduction is a powerful tool for development; it allows communities to continue their
progress in spite of hazards. Identifying, averting, reducing and managing risks responsibly and
effectively saves lives, averts economic losses, reduces social, economic and environmental impacts
of disasters, prevents development setbacks, and unleashes opportunities.
Against the backdrop of a renewed global agreement for small island developing States (SIDS), the
post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction – the successor to the Hyogo Framework of Action
(HFA) – will coincide with the adoption of two other major instruments relevant to sustainable
development; namely the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, including sustainable
development goals, and an international agreement on climate change. There is widespread
demand to ensure coherency across these agendas and international instruments, and to ensure
they are mutually-reinforcing for the benefit of SIDS.
II. Background: Disaster risks and SIDS
SIDS are a highly diverse group both in terms of their unique social and cultural identity but equally
in their economic and political development. Despite this, all SIDS share a common reality. SIDS are
located among the most vulnerable regions in the world in relation to the intensity and frequency of
natural hazards. SIDS face high levels of disaster risk, have comparatively low economic resilience
and have high or extreme levels of environmental vulnerability.
Between 2000 and 2011 it is conservatively estimated that over 110 and 187 disasters caused by
various hazards affected the Pacific and Caribbean regions, respectively.1 While the death toll and
economic losses may appear low in absolute terms, the relative social and economic impacts are
enormous, eclipsing disasters in other parts of the world which often receive much greater global
attention.
Given their small size, individual hazard events, such as cyclones or earthquakes, often affect an
entire territory and economy. As such, disasters can destroy decades of capital investment and hardfought development gains, often followed by slow and costly recovery.2 The increased indebtedness
and constrained fiscal space can have long-term developmental consequences. While the expected
annual average losses from earthquakes and tropical cyclone wind damage in SIDS represent
respectively only 2 per cent and 1.4 per cent of the global total, it is precisely because they are small,
8 of the 10 countries that would lose the largest proportion of the value of their produced capital
stock in a one-in-250 year earthquake are SIDS. In the case of a one-in-250 year cyclone, SIDS
comprise 6 of the 10 countries most at risk.3 Countries with low levels of investment and high
average annual losses are less likely to be able to absorb losses, even from more frequent, less
severe events.
SIDS are among the countries that contribute least to climate change, with less than one per
cent of total carbon dioxide emissions, yet stand to suffer most from its negative impacts.
1
EM-DAT http://www.emdat.be/
UNISDR (2009) Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate. Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva:
Switzerland: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
3
UNISDR (2013) From Shared Risk to Shared Value – The Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction.
2
1
Climate change is likely to disproportionately magnify disaster risk in SIDS, due to sea level rise
and associated flood and storm surge hazard, increasing cyclonic wind intensity, coastal erosion,
saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers and worsening water scarcity and drought.4
Projected changes in climate extremes for SIDS
Example
Changes in climate extremes projected (to 2100)
Inundation related to
extreme sea levels in
tropical small island
developing States
Increasing losses
from cyclones
Very likely that mean sea level rise will contribute to upward trends in extreme coastal high water
levels. (Observed changes since 1950 show a likely increase in extreme coastal high water
worldwide related to increases in mean sea level).
High confidence that locations currently experiencing coastal erosion and inundation will continue
to do so due to increasing sea level, in he absence of changes in other contributing factors.
Likely increase in average tropical cyclones maximum wind speed, although increase may not occur
in all ocean basins. Coupled with the very likely sea level rise, the likely increase in tropical cyclone
maximum wind speed is a specific issue for tropical small islands States.
Heavy rainfall associated with tropical cyclones likely to increase.
Source: adapted from Mahon et al., 2012 (based on IPCC, 2012)
III. Build on existing partnerships
SIDS are leading efforts to strengthen their resilience and build sustainable communities. SIDS
have established a number of nationally- and regionally-focused partnerships in the area of
disaster risk reduction and resilience.
In the Pacific, States and territories have come together to integrate disaster risk management
and climate change, and linkages to sustainable development, through the development of a
Strategy for Disaster and Climate Resilient Development (SRDP). This is at the forefront of the
region's efforts to take a lead role globally in addressing climate change and disaster risk
management in a more integrated manner. In the Indian Ocean, States are taking a proactive
approach to risk-sensitive development through risk assessments and disaster loss databases to
better inform decision making. While in the Caribbean, multi-country insurance instruments,
shared early warning and private sector engagement are concrete approaches to regional
disaster risk management.
These existing efforts, among others, highlight the benefits of regionally-led and owned
initiatives, supported by development partners. These initiatives are generally providing more
effective services and better value for money than if standalone initiatives were to be
established.
Given the high levels of disaster risk, low levels of economic resilience and limits to
competitiveness, regional approaches offer clear and tangible benefits in reducing risks and
sharing burdens. There are a number of additional sectors where a regional approach could add
value in the areas of disaster risk reduction and resilience building. This includes a joint
framework promoting sustainable tourism, leveraging the opportunities for island-to-island and
region-to-region technical assistance, expanding early warning and strengthening regional
preparedness, and building national and regional capacity to support evidence-based decisionmaking and implementing disaster risk reduction programmes and frameworks.
IV. Post-2015 Agenda - Opportunities for mutual reinforcement
As the international community considers a post-2015 development architecture, a nuanced
understanding of disaster risk is needed: not only do development gains need to be protected
against disasters, but development itself can generate risks which need to be addressed and
4
IPCC, 2012
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managed. This is the very foundation of why disaster risk management should be reflected
across the “post-2015 paradigm”.
An opportunity now arises to have a richness of complementarity between agreements in the
post-2015 agenda (including the new Sustainable Development Goals and international
agreement on climate) to manage and reduce risks inherent to sustainable development. Such
risks manifest themselves through disasters, climate change and variability, financial and
economic crises, and other consequences for the economy, society and the environment.
If risk management is addressed in an incoherent and incompatible manner by each the four
instruments there will be little possibility of success to achieve sustainable development. While
each instrument may need to guide and regulate, as appropriate, specific questions, managing
risk and opportunities in a coherent manner needs to remain a common feature.
V. Key messages
Addressing disaster risk and strengthening resilience is at the core of sustainable development
for SIDS: The accumulating and increasing cost of disasters goes beyond direct economic losses.
Disasters are resulting in lost social and economic opportunities, increasing indebtedness and
the diversion of development funding.
SIDS lead global effort in integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk management
into one strategic approach: SIDS recognise the inter-linkages between climate and disaster risk,
and the advantages of addressing the challenges and exploring the opportunities under a single
approach. This approach provides a clear strategic direction, and utilises the limited capacity
and funding in an efficient manner.
Investing in the resilience of SIDS through regional initiatives provides multiple benefits: Given
the focus SIDS economies have in relatively few sectors (tourism, fisheries and agriculture), the
direct and indirect economic, social and environmental benefits from investing in disaster
resilience can provide tangible and multiple benefits to communities.
In the face of climate change, SIDS require long-term support in building their resilience to
natural hazards: In the context of disasters, climate change is seen as a multiplier, placing
additional pressure on existing risk driven by poverty, land-use planning and management, and
ecosystem degradation.
A post-2015 framework on disaster risk reduction can support SIDS in realising their
sustainable development: The post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction promises to
offer a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of disaster risk management. Three
inter-related approaches have emerged: (i) risk prevention i.e. the pursuit of development
pathways that minimize risk generation; (ii) risk reduction, i.e. the pursuit of corrective action to
address existing accumulations of disaster risk; and (iii) strengthened resilience, i.e. actions that
enable nations and communities to absorb loss and damage, minimize impacts etc.
A coherent and harmonized approach across the sustainable development agenda can support
SIDS-led development efforts: There is an opportunity to aligning targets and indicators across
agreements and instruments. This can reduce the burden on countries and harmonize national
reporting system (e.g. between the new generation HFA reporting, national reports on UNFCCC,
and a future SDG reporting mechanism).
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