Invest to prevent: new FAO report assesses trends in agriculture-related investments in disaster risk reduction 2004-2016
Rome, Italy - The recently published FAO report ‘Agriculture-related investments in disaster risk reduction and management’, distributed at the UNISDR Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction last week, looks at global and regional trends between 2004 and 2016, and shows there is a clear need to increase official development assistance (ODA) allocations for disaster-risk prevention and preparedness in the agriculture sectors.
According to the study, only USD 47.22 million (3 percent) of the global ODA was directed to agriculture-related measures within disaster-risk reduction and management (DRR/DRM). This does however represent one-third of all disaster-risk reduction and management allocations, thus strongly emphasizing the importance of the agriculture sectors in DRR/DRM activities.
“We believe that the findings of this analysis will support national governments, international financing institutions, civil society organizations and resource partners in future investment planning in the agriculture sectors”. Explained Alex Jones Director of FAO’s Climate and Environment Division.
The increased frequency and severity of natural hazards and disasters, largely caused by climate change, has serious negative impacts on the agriculture sectors, threatening peoples’ lives and livelihoods as well as national economies. Between 2006 and 2016, almost a quarter (23 percent) of all damages and losses caused by medium- and large-scale natural disasters happened in the agriculture sectors.
Though the analysis revealed an increase in ODA for prevention and preparedness (including flood prevention and control) across different sectors, this increase is not reflected in agriculture-related allocations. There is a clear need to increase ODA allocations for disaster-risk prevention and preparedness in the agriculture sectors.
The observed trend is that agriculture-related prevention and preparedness allocations peaked during or after disaster events, which might indicate that investments are made reactively, triggered by a large-scale disaster with no preventative planning.
“It’s challenging to estimate the impact of disaster preventive investment on economic growth, but this is fundamental if we want to encourage investment in prevention before disasters strike” confirmed Alex Jones when discussing the outcomes of the new report.
To tackle this challenge, it is essential to invest in disaster risk reduction measures that can both increase sustainable agricultural production and boost the resilience of current and future generations. Even in the absence of disasters, these investments can provide significant benefits, for example by encouraging households to protect existing assets and build new ones, as well as by promoting entrepreneurship and stimulating innovation.
Read the report
http://www.fao.org/3/ca4417en/ca4417en.pdf