In May 2007, the Secretary-General of the United Nations created a task force to monitor progress towards attaining the commitments contained in Millennium Development Goals (MDG 8), the Global Partnership for Development. Every year since its establishment the MDG Gap task Force has produced an annual report. The latest report, released on September 20, entitled “The Global Partnership for Development: Making Rhetoric a Reality,” noted that there was “difficulty identifying areas of significant new progress towards delivering on commitments to the Global Partnership for Development, and for the first time there are signs of backsliding.” Additionally, the Executive Summary noted, “The risk of natural disasters continues to increase in both developed and developing countries. Making further progress in reducing and managing risk will require inter alia, better and more systematic recording of disaster losses and impacts, and the institutionalization of natural disaster inventory systems. Most countries lack such systems.”

The report notes that population living in flood-prone river basins “has increased by 114% over the last forty years and on cyclone-exposed coastlines by 192%.” From the perspective of earthquakes, the report notes that: “More than half the world’s largest cities are located in areas of high risk from the occurrence of earthquakes.”

Margareta Wahlström, chief of the UNISDR, welcomed the language calling for a greater focus on recording disaster losses and said: “Access to information is critical to successful disaster risk management. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. The 43 countries which have established and institutionalized national disaster loss data bases are leading the way when it comes to a coherent and targeted response to investment in resilient infrastructure.

“Ultimately, good disaster management makes a strong contribution to poverty reduction by eliminating recurring disaster losses from extensive disaster events such as floods and storms and avoiding interruptions to food supply, health service provision, education and public transport.”

Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Mozambique and Yemen are all listed in the report as “examples of countries which have established policy-relevant data bases.”