Resource information
Disasters are increasing worldwide with
more devastating effects than ever before. The absolute
number of disasters around the world has almost doubled
since the 1980s, but the average number of natural disasters
in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has almost tripled
over the same period. In MENA the interplay of natural
disasters, rapid urbanization, water scarcity, and climate
change has emerged as a serious challenge for policy and
planning. It has reconfigured risk landscapes by making the
region's natural resource base fragile and extremely
susceptible to a variety of internal and external factors.
The 2011 global assessment report on disaster risk reduction
finds that although global flood mortality risk has been
decreasing since 2000, it is increasing in MENA. World Bank
support to MENA countries encompasses capacity building on
disaster risk management (DRM) at national and community
levels, catalyzing an inter-ministerial dialogue within
countries, and creating an enabling environment to support
the development of national DRM strategies.
