Highlighting the need for greater investment in stronger homes and better preparedness, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that millions of homes are damaged or destroyed annually “displacing families and deepening poverty”.
Marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN chief stressed that “as climate and disaster risks multiply, building safer dwellings is the shared responsibility of governments, developers, engineers and communities”.
Echoing that message, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – UNDRR – noted that damage to housing alone accounts for 43 per cent of the direct cost of cyclones, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes.
Difference between life and loss
Spokesperson Jeanette Elsworth stressed that reducing the impacts of disaster depended on building resilient homes and households that had prepared for the worst.
“Among those people who had received an advance warning during a disaster, only 27 per cent of those who had neither a household disaster plan nor confidence in their ability to protect themselves…were able to act on that warning,” she said, citing data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2026.
“By contrast, 83 per cent of those who had both a plan and confidence in their ability to respond were able to take action.”
Ms. Elsworth noted that progress in reducing disaster deaths over the last 11 years has not been matched by reductions in their economic impact.
All households should have access to risk information, early warning alerts and the resources they need to protect themselves, she maintained, in a call to put housing resilience at the centre of disaster risk reduction efforts.
Safer and stronger
Governments, the private sector and community authorities could do this by “building in safer locations, enforcing resilient building standards, retrofitting existing homes and empowering households with the knowledge and tools they need to prepare for disasters”, she continued.
The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped 1.4 million people in 2025 across 39 countries with disaster risk reduction programmes, supporting nearly 1,200 communities.
Maria Moita, Director, Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery at IOM, said that for many people, the end of a disaster is “only the beginning of a much longer struggle to return home, restore livelihoods and rebuild their lives”.
The agency also helped extend early warning coverage to more than 1.2 million people.
Lessons in recovery
Recent emergencies in Nepal, Venezuela and Colombia have demonstrated how planning for disaster and data gathering can have a significant bearing on recovery.
In Nepal, where devastating flooding caused by a glacier collapsing in August affected more than 84,000 people and damaged approximately 7,500 homes, IOM assessments across 48 displacement sites identified 3,650 displaced people and 28 sites still operational.
In Venezuela, following the June earthquakes, the agency assisted 50,600 people, providing temporary accommodation, essential supplies, health care and protection.
Surveys indicated that more than half of affected households identified housing repairs as a priority. “The lesson was clear: recovery planning had to begin early, before temporary displacement became prolonged,” Ms. Moita stressed.
In Colombia, an earthquake in August reportedly affected nearly 500,000 people and damaged more than 200,000 homes, leaving an estimated 20,000 families displaced in Cali.
“Rebuilding homes alone is not enough, communities also need functioning services and opportunities to rebuild their lives,” the IOM official noted.
“We need sustained investment in early warnings, local preparedness, safer housing, and recovery efforts that begin from the outset and build resilience. Disasters may strike suddenly. Displacement can last much longer,” Ms. Moita said.
