un-international-strategy-for-disaster-reduction
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exposure to economic risks increasing
9th February 2009
In 2008, according to the United Nation’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISIR) report there were:
· 321 disasters killed 235,816 people,
· 211 million other people were affected and cost a total of US$181 billion.
· Asia was the most affected continent. Nine of the top 10 countries with the highest number of disaster-related deaths were in Asia
· The death toll in 2008 was three times more than the annual average of 66,812 for 2000-2007
· Disaster costs in 2008 were twice the US$81 billion annual average for 2000-2007 Cyclones and earthquakes were the biggest types of disasters resulting in 138,366 deaths in the Nargis Cyclone and 87,476 people died in the Myanmar earthquake.
One of the main conclusions from the report suggests that the disaster impact could have been reduced through resilient building design and the deployment of an early warning system complemented with good community preparedness.
“Although fewer disasters occurred in 2008, events seem to have a larger impact on human settlements. This is especially true in middle income countries such as China which was the largest contributor to economic losses last year. As countries move up the development ladder, their economic vulnerability tends to increase. Ideally, these countries need to invest more in disaster risk reduction measures if they want to better protect development gains,” said Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir, Director of CRED.
Business continuity planning can assist in identifying key organisational or even national risks to help establish a strategy to ensure the continuity of critical services. It can also assist in assessing risks associated with the physical infrastructure of your organisational assets from which the core organisational activities are performed. For further information on any aspect of business continuity, please feel free to contact me at raz.chaudary@lrqa.com