Enhance infrastructure resilience

Our society is heavily dependent on the effective and efficient operation of critical infrastructure systems, such as energy and water, to deliver public services, enrich living standards, and stimulate economic growth.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction calls for reducing disaster damage and service disruptions, while SDG 9 urges countries to build resilient infrastructure.

Building resilient infrastructure is essential not only for new construction, but also for upgrading existing assets and ensuring resilient recovery. Indeed, rebuilding stronger and more-adaptable infrastructure after a disaster is essential to reducing risks and safeguarding long-term development.  

Building resilience into infrastructure adds only about 3 percent to total investment costs, an amount easily offset by the long-term benefits of reduced losses and uninterrupted services.

UNDRR supports countries with trusted knowledge and inclusive resilience approaches to ensure risk considerations are embedded in every stage of the infrastructure lifecycle.

To do this, UNDRR focuses on the following areas:

• Supporting countries to integrate resilience into decision-making and improve infrastructure management ;
• Assisting governments in strengthening their national and local regulatory frameworks;
• Assessing the vulnerability, inter-dependency and exposure to disaster risks of infrastructure systems ; and,
• Accelerating financing for resilient infrastructure and improving the effectiveness .

At the country level, this work is being delivered through collaboration with renowned experts, local practitioners and international partners, such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)