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Myanmar

UNICEF Myanmar’s Key Messages for the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDR) 2018 for the Theme of “Reducing Economic Losses”

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In 2017 alone, 318 major natural disasters affected 96 million people in 122 countries causing more than 300 billion dollars. Strengthening our collective efforts to ensure disaster and climate resilient education access, safe drinking water, and children’s health will not only reduce economic losses, it will also protect and even trigger more economic growth.

For example, annually, US$260 billion or 1.5% of a developing country’s GDP of economic losses occurs as a result of having poor water and sanitation. Due to water-borne diseases, globally over 800 children under five die every day, and children miss school by spending the equivalent of millions of hours every day to collect water for their families. If children are in good health and have steady access to safe drinking water, children thrive and become more productive adults who can contribute to their country’s economic growth. However, when these services are not resilient to disasters and a changing climate, progress on reducing losses is set back at each disaster event, accumulating additional risk and with even higher losses each time.

UNICEF continues to provide leadership in coordinating and responding to emergencies due to natural disaster, conflict, and public health crises, while also working to strengthen the linkage between humanitarian and development programming. Investing in stronger systems during times of stability mitigates the impact and cost of emergencies when they arise, and thus humanitarian and development programme efforts should be complementary.

If we do not manage disaster risk, we will miss the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For example, globally, one in five children and youth is still out of school5 . Even with the efforts toward meeting the SDG4 to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,’ the number of children and youth who are still out of school remains nearly the same for the last three years. In East and South-East Asia, 15.2 million children who are in the age of primary school and lower secondary school level were not able to access to education.

Financial burdens caused by disasters force more children into child labor or child marriage to support their families. Comprehensive disaster risk management including a child centered, inclusive approach will protect children and youth from shocks that would have otherwise changed the course of their entire lives. Ensuring adequate and uninterrupted safety, social protection, education and preventing child labor and child marriage enables our youth to become major drivers for the future economy.

Myanmar’s high exposure to both climatic and geological hazards paired with low coping capacities put children at high risk. In Myanmar, about 2 million children who are in the age group of studying in primary school and lower secondary schools are not able to access to education. Incomplete basic education and low educational attainment will not be able to fully equip the necessary skills for the future labor force, children and youth, which impacts the growth of the country’s economy. According to the World Development Report 2018, increasing primary enrollment rate from 50 to 100 per cent may increase about 8 per cent in the share of income for the households in the poorest decile. Furthermore, each additional year of education may increase an individual’s earnings around 8–10 per cent. If more children and youth complete basic education and advance to upper level education, they will be able to create and access more quality jobs, which will positively impact the country’s economic growth and transform lives.

Having safe and disaster-resilient schools will reduce the post-disaster recovery costs and help ensure more sustainable access to education for children. UNICEF Myanmar collaborates with national and local partners to ensure children in Myanmar can enjoy their education in safe and disaster-resilient schools by complying with safe and child-friendly guidelines for school construction. For example, through the project ‘Post-Flood Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and repair of 78 schools in Rakhine state’ (funded by the Government of Japan) and ‘Building on Quality-Based Education Programme’ (24 schools funded by EU and Denmark), so far 31 safe and child-friendly schools have been constructed, and 58 schools have been rehabilitated in the 2017-2018 period.