Despite the rapid economic and technological advances made by countries in Asia and the Pacific, people living in the region are almost five times more likely to have their lives and assets destroyed by natural disasters than people living elsewhere. This project was launched in response to requests from several countries for technical assistance from ESCAP in developing new national disaster management plans and in addressing disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in economic and social sectors. The project provided support for mitigating future risks from natural disasters. ESCAP operated as the regional platform for a science-policy interface to manage the gaps between science and policy, communicate complex risk information and implement impactful initiatives.

As a result of the project, a beneficiary country is finalizing its national disaster management plan, which includes building disaster resilience in the context of the 2030 Agenda. Moreover, following the Gorkha earthquake in 2015, which killed nearly 9,000 people, a regional recovery dialogue was convened, and a policy guidebook for earthquake recovery was developed to support the “build back better” process. During the devastating 2015/16 El Niño, ESCAP, along with partners, developed a seminal El Niño assessment methodology using cutting-edge weather and climate research to improve El Niño risk assessment, which was adapted by key stakeholders from affected Member States in South-East Asia. The project culminated in the establishment of a capacity development platform aimed at knowledge advancement, the regional learning platform, which continues to bridge the gaps between science and policy and has been supported beyond the life cycle of the project.