2015•11•12
The International launch of the WorldRiskReport 2015 will be streamed live in English at ehs.unu.edu.
When: Tuesday, 17 November 2015, 10:00 a.m. New York/EST, 4:00 p.m. Berlin/CET
Where: Live streaming on ehs.unu.edu (no login required). Media questions can be posted via live chat, Twitter, or email (media@ehs.unu.edu) and will be answered by the experts.
Who:
Why:
The WorldRiskReport 2015 focuses on the relationship between disaster risk and food (in-)security. The report places food security within the context of the WorldRiskIndex which systematically considers a country’s vulnerability, and its exposure to natural hazards (e.g., floods, storms, earthquakes) to determine a disaster risk ranking of 171 countries around the world.
Food insecurity increases disaster risk. A lack of food security can, for example, cause people to move to higher risk areas more vulnerable to natural hazards. Additionally, limited resources hamper people’s ability to respond effectively to a natural disaster. Globally, 2.5 billion people depend directly on agriculture for their survival. If their harvests, livestock or means of transportation are negatively affected by a natural hazard, their livelihoods are at risk. An investment in food security reduces the vulnerability of societies to natural hazards and conversely an investment in disaster risk reduction has a positive effect on food security.
The earthquake in Nepal in 2015 showed, for instance, how the country’s food security was severely impacted by the earthquake. On the other hand, conditions of food insecurity help explain the high level of disaster vulnerability in this case. In the remote mountain areas up to 70 per cent of the people were not able to eat or had only very little food in this crisis situation. The WorldRiskReport 2015 concludes that the international community must invest in countries’ food security to reduce their vulnerability to disasters, and it lays out concrete policy recommendations to the international community.
Note to editors
Embargoed media materials and interviews with the experts can be requested by contacting kandel@vie.unu.edu. High resolution photos, maps and other visuals can be requested by contacting media@ehs.unu.edu.
For more information, please contact:
Janine Kandel
Media Officer
United Nations University
Phone: + 49 (0) 228 / 815 – 0256
E-Mail: kandel@vie.unu.edu
Melanie Huber
Media Officer
Alliance Development Works
Phone: +49 (0) 30 / 27877 – 393
E-mail: presse@entwicklung-hilft.de