OECD Reviews of Risk Management Policies Assessing the Real Cost of Disasters The Need for Better Evidence

Disasters disrupt socio-economic activities and cause substantial damage. Yet, their full economic impact remains largely unknown, especially the cost of smaller disasters and indirect impacts such as those due to business disruptions. Similarly, little information exists on the total amount of public resources that countries devote to disaster risk management. Reliable, comprehensive and comparable data on the economic impact of disasters as well as on public spending on disaster management and risk prevention are essential for developing effective disaster risk management policies. This report provides an overview of countries' efforts to improve the quality and quantity of information on the costs of disasters. Read more... Intro Foreword Acknowledgements Table of contents Executive Summary Introduction 1. Improving the Evidence Base on the Costs of Disasters 1.1. The rationale for improving the evidence base on the costs of disasters The importance of assessing critical infrastructure damage and losses The value of disaster loss data collected by non-government agencies Economic cost information for project level decisions and macro policy evaluations Comprehensive damage and loss data foster a whole-of-society engagement in disaster risk management 1.2. The benefits of recording public disaster risk management expendituresTracking disaster risk management expenditure in a central framework enables a better understanding of potential disaster-related contingent liabilities Transparency in the allocation of disaster risk management expenditures 1.3. Conclusion References 2. Progress in measuring and accounting for disaster damage and losses in OECD countries 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Accounting for the cost of disasters: What needs to get measured and how 2.3. Accounting for the cost of disasters: Countries' approaches to measuring disaster damages and lossesCentralised versus fragmented approaches to collecting disaster damage and loss data Formal conditions for establishing disaster damage and loss repositories Single versus multi-hazard databases Thresholds and time periods covered by disaster loss data differs significantly across countries Accessibility of disaster damage and loss information 2.4. Comprehensiveness of disaster damage and loss information Distributional disaster impacts: differentiating costs by type of actor that incurs themComparability of existing national level disaster damage and loss data 2.5. Estimating disaster damages and losses ex-ante 2.6. Discussion of results Notes References 3. Public expenditures for disaster risk management: Assessing the state of the art 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Expenditure for disaster risk management -- what measures are needed? 3.3. Overview of country practices collecting disaster risk management expenditure information Japan Australia Switzerland France Austria Colombia and MexicoUnited States of America 3.4. Discussion of results Notes References 4. Summary and next steps 4.1. Revisiting the rationale 4.2. Summary of the main findings Going forward Annex A. Improving the Evidence Base on the Costs of Disasters: OECD Expert Meeting Summaries The objectives of the meeting were to: The objectives of the meeting were to: Annex B. OECD country survey and list of institutions of country responses Annex A. Improving the Evidence Base on the Costs of Disasters: OECD Expert Meeting Summaries