Africa Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction

This edition of the Africa Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (Af-RAR) comes at a time of increased recognition of the pivotal role of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. DRR is now an integral part of social and economic development and is essential if sustainable development is to become a reality. The 2030 agenda recognizes and reaffirms the urgent need to reduce the risk of disasters, and the Sendai Framework is the first of its interlocking components to have indicators adopted to measure the achievement of the seven global targets. The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that hit the world in early 2020 has become the worst human and economic crisis of our lifetime. COVID-19 pandemic has helped expose the systemic nature of risk and systems’ exposure to all hazards. Its extraordinary cascading effects have impacted all sectors and levels of Sub-Saharan economies and societies. It is triggering severe disruption to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievement. The pandemic disaster demonstrates that risk is more systemic than ever in a connected, globalized world. No country, community, or sector is immune. What was initially portrayed as a health disaster rapidly developed into a socio-economic disaster with a longstanding impact, stressing the urgency for a whole-of-society whole-of-government approach towards risk-informed recovery