ROAMC RAR launch: Reducing Risk is the Key to a Resilient Future

The COVID-19 pandemic, its impact and causality, has provided an opportunity to reflect on risk management and its importance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is undoubtedly a historic juncture that forces us to look in the mirror and examine old problems from new perspectives. 

The lessons learned from this crisis are part of the comprehensive analysis of the Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean (RAR) to be launched on March 16 by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) - Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean.

As the result of more than a year of work, this document analyzes the main challenges faced by the region during the last decade, while mapping the opportunities created through the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. In addition, the report underlines the importance to enhance multi-sector approaches, the importance of urban planning, the need for strengthening international cooperation, and the dimensions of good governance.  

The first stage of the launch of this report will take place with its distilled version during the Forum of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on Sustainable Development 2021, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, with the participation of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, as well as several of the authors of the document. The full document will be published in the upcoming weeks.  

"The Americas and Caribbean region has contributed significantly to the conceptual development of risk reduction at the global level. The Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean takes stock of where we are today, the main challenges we face and the issues ahead," said Raul Salazar, chief of UNDRR - Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean. "It is an important document for the sustainable development agenda in the region, even more so after the impact of the pandemic, which illustrated precisely how systemic risk works and how we must prevent it," added Salazar.