Recommendations on the role of official statistics in measuring hazardous events and disasters

Many countries and regions are facing two increasingly stark trends: rapid urbanization and a growing number of natural disasters caused by climate change-related hazards. Combined, they substantially increase the risk to which many people are exposed. The increasing number and magnitude of disasters and their impacts on people, the economy and the environment have led to the adoption of global policy frameworks to reduce disaster risk and ensure sustainable development, most importantly the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. National efforts to manage and reduce disaster risk are high on the policy agenda in many countries. Disaster-risk management on the national level is usually a task of specialised agencies or line ministries, with only limited or no involvement of national statistical offices (NSOs) or other members of the national statistical system (NSS). However, the work of Disaster Risk Management Agencies (DRMAs) is largely dependent on data produced by NSS, such as statistics on population, economy, agriculture, etc. Due to lack of collaboration between DRMAs and NSOs official statistics are often not used as much as they could be, or they are not fit for purpose, e.g. due to time lags or confidentiality issues that need to be considered for small scale analysis. This publication clarifies the role of NSOs and other members of NSS in providing information related to hazardous events and disasters, and identifies practical steps that these organisations can take, in coordination with national agencies responsible for disaster risk management, to better support disaster risk management efforts.