Build resilience to combat poverty

RIGHT now, millions of people are suffering from disasters around the world: The civil war in Syria, earthquakes in Pakistan, flooding in Sudan, landslides in Mexico, cyclones in China, and hunger in the Sahel region of Africa.

It may seem like a never-ending cycle. It is easy to get downhearted and think that there is no solution, that disasters are inevitable and increasing in frequency, and that aid agencies are responding as best they can but, ultimately, there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. But there is.

The first important thing to recognise is that these disasters disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people, and that the risks they face are a significant factor in keeping them poor.