World spends 5 times more on responding to natural risk than reducing them

The world spends “less than half of one per cent” of its $135bn global aid budget on disaster risk reduction (DRR). According to Robert Glasser, the UN’s head of disaster planning, the international community is already “falling short” in its attempts to cope with humanitarian disasters, such as the conflict in Syria, while climate change would exacerbate the situation. Glasser pointed out the threats from drought in the Middle East and Africa, and said: “We’ll see many more examples of cascading crises, where one event triggers another event, which triggers another event”.

 

The world spends more than five times as much money on responding to natural disasters as it does on reducing the risk of them. The UN’s head of disaster planning, Robert Glasser, has called for immediate action on mitigating the risks posed by climate change, droughts and the humanitarian crises that follow.

Which country is most at risk from natural disasters? Explore our analysis of the world risk index, which measures countries by the frequency of natural disasters as well as how well-equipped they are to recover. Plus browse our content marking the first anniversary of the Nepal earthquake.

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Malaria menace: when insecticide-resistant mosquitoes bite back

Married at 14, abandoned by 15: the forgotten girls of Dhaka

Opinion

Over the past five years, global immunisation rates have increased by only about 1%, falling short of global targets. Amy Whalley, of Results UK, calls for an effective immunisation programme, which she argues could help developing health systems.

It is time for Liberia to ban female genital mutilation, following similar bans in Nigeria and the Gambia, writes Equality Now’s Mary Wandia. Although Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf called on other countries to “muster the courage to ban the irreparable harm inflicted by genital mutilation”, she is yet to make this a reality in her own country.

Multimedia

In Colombia, women who survived years of rape and violence during the country’s conflict have built their own haven. The City of Women houses almost 500 people and has its own school and shops. Kary Stewart visited the settlement for our latest podcast. You can also read Sibylla Brodzinsky’s report.

More than 250,000 people have fled Burundi since it descended into violence one year ago. See photographs from Nyarugusu, on the Tanzanian border, which has become the world’s third largest refugee settlement.

Students Speak

As the UN prepares to choose a new secretary general, we want to know how you would approach the top job. Submit a response of 250 words or fewer, telling us what your first act in office would be, and we’ll publish the best ones.

What you said

On The construction industry must step up on human rights, Silvia Mera wrote:

We need companies to embrace disclosure (and upcoming regulations – ie the Modern Slavery Act – are slowly making it more and more compelling) which means 1) share if they’re taking action and 2) share which challenges they are facing when addressing this problem and 3) find solutions as an industry! Naming and shaming is not the way if we want companies to come forward rather than stepping back … These are businesses with resources to fix the problem once they have understood the issue, the risks and are willing to put solutions in place, and believe me, most do, as they do not want to shut down or lose competitiveness. How can they fix the problem if they just go out of business? For a business that closes down another one will open and potentially thrive on abuse of human rights. And abused workers will never be freed.

Highlight from the blogosphere

The world humanitarian summit will have little hope of addressing the biggest crises facing the world if governments refuse to tackle the root causes, argues Ed Cairns on From Poverty to Power.

And finally …

Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global development website. Follow @gdndevelopment and the team –@swajones, @LizFordGuardian, @clarnic and @CarlaOkai – on Twitter, and join Guardian Global development on Facebook.