The first edition of the Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean

This first edition of the Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean (RAR 2021) presents the results of thirty years of efforts to reduce the risk of disasters in the region. The analysis contained in these pages—particularly when considered in combination with the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the adverse economic panorama ahead—presents us with a unique opportunity to both rethink and implement concrete risk reduction strategies that better meet the challenges of today.

Download the report

Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean (RAR 2021), distilled version, of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional office for the Americas & the Caribbean.

RAR Q&A for Latin America and the Caribbean

We present the most relevant questions about the Regional Assessment Report of Latin America and the Caribbean, the document and elaboration process and the most relevant concepts approached.

Poverty, inequality, and exclusion: the drivers of risk in Latin America

This first edition of the United Nations Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean (RAR) is an initial effort to share the findings on disaster risk management in the region by analyzing the evidence on factors that contribute to risk construction, thereby providing a significant Latin American contribution to the accumulated knowledge on this subject matter.

“The RAR is an instrument needed for recognizing, synthesizing, and combining all contributions made by institutions, academia, and civil society from the perspective of their own characteristics, to realize the wealth of capacities available in the region. It also recognizes the efforts made by countries and the innovations incorporated into proposals and legal frameworks that have been implemented.”

Raquel Lejteger, architect specializing in disaster risk management, consultant to the United Nations, co-author of the RAR.

A strengthened international community

International community efforts to address disaster risk reduction were consolidated in 1990 through the implementation of frameworks and agreements among countries.

Current Latin American development models foster risk construction

Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the regions that most knowledge has contributed with respect to disaster risk, particularly on the basis of empirical evidence collected from disasters that have occurred.

Resilient cities: the challenge for the next decades

Over 80% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean lives in cities: the RAR sustains that this is a remarkably high percentage that places the region as the most urbanized in the world.

The governance of sustainable development

As the RAR indicates, public policies and actions adopted in Latin America and the Caribbean to counter disaster risk are largely specific responses to a given disaster.

Reducing disaster risk: the balance after 30 years

Over three decades of efforts to reduce disaster risk, advances have been made in knowledge about risk and its manifestation in disasters and the factors that influence its construction have been identified.

Disaster risk management under the magnifier of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is uncovering how conditions such as inequality, exclusion, and informality represent risk drivers and the fact that there are huge difficulties to prevent or control risk building in future.

The first edition of the Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean

Poverty, inequality, and exclusion: the drivers of risk in Latin America

Infographics

Webinar series on YouTube

Is this page useful?