The Risk and Resilience Portal, under the Asia Pacific Disaster Resilience Network, has been established to deepen policymakers' understanding of cascading risks from the disaster-climate-health nexus, provide evidence based analytics to strengthen regional cooperation frameworks to conduct and produce actionable risk assessments, and strengthen capacity of multiple sectoral ministries to develop risk informed planning and budgeting.

The portal will answer four key questions on the emerging disaster-climate-health riskscape. Where are the risk hotspots of cascading hazards. What are the current and future economic losses from cascading hazards. How much will it cost countries, the subregions, and the region to adapt to the new riskscape. What are the adaptation priorities for countries, sub-regions and the region.

Disasters disproportionately impact poor and marginalized groups and limit the ability of economic growth to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. ESCAP’s flagship report on disaster risk reduction, the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report continues to present empirical evidence that many high-risk countries may not be able achieve multiple sustainable development goals by 2030 if disaster risks are not mitigated. The convergence of natural and biological hazards (as demonstrated by the impacts of COVID-19) have expanded the disaster riskscape of the Asia Pacific region. This riskscape is further intensified by the impacts of climate change. To address the disaster-climate-health riskscape and the ensuing cascading risks on SDG progress, Governments need to adopt strategies that move beyond the traditional focus on a hazard-by-hazard approach to a multi-hazard approach. Led by ESCAP and implemented in collaboration with various partners, the Asia Pacific Disaster Resilience Portal aims to strengthen the capacity of countries in Asia and the Pacific to mitigate the impacts of cascading risks on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).