Pretoria - The G20 has urged action to counter rising costs from natural disasters.
This as leaders of the world's largest economies meeting at the G20 Summit in Mexico have highlighted the importance of disaster risk management as an integral part of development policy to reflect their concern about the increase from natural disasters in both developed and developing countries.
The World Bank and Mexico's joint release of the report, "Improving the Assessment of Disaster Risks to Strengthen Financial Resilience", is the first deliverable under the G20 disaster risk management agenda.
The report was released at an event on the side-lines of the G20 Summit on Saturday. The report is a compendium of actions undertaken in G20 and other countries to protect their populations and assets against losses from adverse natural events.
"The economic impacts of disasters can push people back into poverty and threaten programs for the poor by forcing governments to divert financing. We all need to learn from the experiences of other countries while promoting knowledge exchanges that will help to build resilience in all sectors of an economy," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on the report that will help in those efforts.
According to the report, the world witnessed record losses from disasters caused by natural hazards, with losses estimated at up to US$380 billion. The report found that recent events have shown that no country rich or poor has been immune from crippling natural hazards.
The G20 is made up of 19 country members and the European Union, which together represent around 90% of global GDP, 80% of global trade and two-thirds of the world's population.
Fifteen of the G20 members as well as invited countries and the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] submitted contributions to the publication.
The summit kicks off today and will conclude on Tuesday.
