Ms. Mizutori said: “It has to be your research that counts in developing innovative solutions to disaster risk on your continent. You cannot rely on imported solutions. Think about disaster risk reduction as a career.”

In her final public speaking engagement on the closing day of the Assembly, she said that the numbers of people being displaced by disasters was “staggering” at 19 million in 2017 compared to 12 million for conflict.

Ms. Mizutori was speaking on a high level panel on the correlation between migration and environment convened by the government of Morocco which also hosted the signing of the Global Compact on Migration.

The problem of chronic displacement fueled by poverty and extreme weather events was only likely to become more acute if greater action was not taken on climate change including adaptation, she said.

She encouraged the audience to make use of the solutions to be found in the new Words into Action guide, "Disaster Displacement: How to reduce risk, address impacts and strengthe resilience," produced by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in a collaboration led by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and funded by the Government of Germany, in support of efforts by the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD).

The guide is pitched to ensure that future disaster risk reduction strategies include disaster displacement risk.

Date:

15 Mar 2019

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Africa (UNISDR AF)

Themes:

Climate Change, Community-based DRR