Abstract

The UN Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2023) highlights how resilience can be strengthened to withstand and respond to shocks. This includes investments in early warning systems where the benefits triple in vulnerable contexts because of their proven ability to reduce damage. 

Developed to cover the period 2015-2030, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework has agreed targets and indicators and a data-gathering system that has been accepted and is being applied by United Nations Member States across the globe. However, all too often, the progress data is collected independently in silos. When this same data is looked at holistically from the perspective of resilience building, key resilience deficits that are holding back sustainable development become evident.

The maps in this report highlight a number of these resilience deficits that are holding back achievement of key sustainable development goals. At the same time, the report’s action case examples show that this is not inevitable, and how action is possible on every continent to stop the worsening spiral of risk and disasters and to accelerate SDG target achievement. 

Addressing resilience gaps will require the unprecedented scaling-up from with both resilience investment and adaptation action both from within the public and private sectors, particularly for the most vulnerable countries. As these investments take time to mobilize and prepare, delay will increase the inevitable costs. Action is needed now. Disaster risk reduction sits at the nexus between development, humanitarian and climate change action, and can help foster more-sustainable resilient action in each. Readjusting development pathways requires a reexamination of how prosperity is measured, and a greater emphasis on resilience as key element of sustainable development today and in the future.