Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

World

International cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters, from relief to development - Report of the Secretary-General (A/72/348)

Attachments

Summary

The present report has been prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/128, in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue to improve the international response to natural disasters and to report thereon to the Assembly at its seventy-second session. The report provides an overview of current efforts and progress made in this regard and describes related humanitarian trends, challenges and thematic issues. It concludes with recommendations for further improvements.

I. Introduction

1. The present report has been prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/128, in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue to improve the international response to natural disasters.

II. Year in review

A. Disaster data for 2016

2. For 2016, the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters registered 325 reported disasters, which caused an estimated 8,681 deaths, affected 199.6 million people and caused $147.8 billion in damage. The combined effects of those disasters have undermined progress towards sustainable development in many countries.

3. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates that more than 24.2 million people were newly displaced by sudden-onset disasters in 2016 — three times as many as those displaced by conflict and violence. This figure is in addition to millions more living in displacement following disasters in previous years. Between 2008 and 2016, there were 227.6 million people displaced by sudden-onset disasters — an average of 25.3 million people per year.

4. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported 2016 as the warmest year on record, breaking the previous record set in 2015. Global sea levels continued to rise and Arctic sea-ice extent was well below average for most of the year. Carbon dioxide reached a record annual average concentration of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere. The year was marked by severe droughts induced by the strong 2015/2016 El Niño episode that affected agricultural production and left people exposed to food insecurity in different parts of the world. Global food insecurity has increased dramatically, exacerbated by conflict and the El Niño phenomenon and compounded by climate change. From 2015 to 2016, the number of people facing food insecurity crises globally increased from 80 million people to 108 million people. The lack of clean and potable drinking water owing to droughts, coupled with compromised immune systems owing to malnutrition, increased the risk and incidence of infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and measles.