Fostering a sense of inclusion around disaster risk reduction in the Pacific

Many Pacific Island countries are located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, making them prone and vulnerable to an increased risk of natural disaster. The region also faces many other challenges on the journey to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Most islands are heavily dependent on tourism as their main source of economic income, women are severely under-represented in politics and gender-based violence is prevalent. Disaster-related data collection and management in many of these countries also has significant potential for improvement.

UN Volunteer Yo Kunieda supported the work of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in Fiji from March 2020 to March 2021. Her main contributions centred on a Small Island Developing States (SIDS) project, which supports small islands to better manage disaster and climate risk.