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At the opening of the Global Platform in Geneva, Manuel Sager, director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, urged officials to invest more in disaster prevention and preparedness. UNDRR's Global Assessment Report warns of new and emerging disaster risks, but progress in fulfilling the Sendai Framework target remains insufficient.

Representatives from some 150 UN Member States attended the opening today of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

The newly released Global Assessment Report 2019 warns that new disaster risks are emerging in a way that was not anticipated, and that the past could no longer be relied on when planning for the future. At the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, countries are being called upon to step up their efforts to prevent the situation getting even worse.

In collaboration with the UNDRR, the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the Norwegian Refugee Council, DISPLACEMENT: Uncertain Journeys will present an exhibition of contemporary art pieces from nine international artists to highlight disaster displacement during the Global Platform for DRR.

The Global Platform for DRR starts a month after Cyclone Idai wreaked havoc in Mozambique. Nearly 1,000 times as much was spent by the UN and Red Cross on response to the cyclone in comparison to what was spend on preparedness. Cyclone Idai, and its cost for response, highlights the need to invest more in preparedness and DRR.

The Second Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference (MHEWC) organized by the World Meteorological Organization ended in Geneva yesterday with what the WMO called a “take-home message” that science, technology and big data can save lives, “but communication is key”.

Ahead of the Global Platform for DRR, starting today, the heads of UNDRR and the Red Cross commented on the shortage of funding to prevent disasters. Governments and businesses are still investing far too little to protect poor communities at rising risk from wild weather and other threats, they said.

For the first time in 20 years, the highest danger level was forecast in large parts of the Swiss Alps in January 2018. Despite 150 destructive avalanches occurring, no lives were lost in settlements or controlled areas. The measures introduced after the extreme winter of 1999, when the occurrence of avalanches was very high, have proven effective.