States, Donors Must Do More To Tackle Rising Disaster Risk: U.N.

As economic losses from disasters rise around the world, more effort is needed to reduce the risks from extreme weather and earthquakes in every area, from infrastructure to health, the United Nations disaster prevention chief said.

Margareta Wahlström, head of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), said in an interview that a new global plan to protect people and assets from disasters, due to be approved in March, aims to ensure "a much stronger link than we have had in the past between development and disaster risk".

"There is progress, but it is not wide and speedy enough to really tackle the increasing disaster losses in many parts of the world," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Geneva, where negotiations on the agreement are taking place this week.

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