Archives for April 2015

Two years ago, I asked a top UN expert in disaster risk what scenario to describe the one scenario that keeps him up at night. Without hesitation he said that an intense earthquake in Kathamndu would be a monumental catastrophe that could kill as many as 250,000 to 400,000 people. He was not alone in this estimation.

On Saturday, April 25 a massive earthquake struck Nepal. And while the damage and destruction is immense and tragic, it was not the cataclysm he predicted. Why was that? How was this nightmare scenario avoided?

This week, I caught back up with that same expert, Jo Scheuer of the United Nations Development Program, as he was on his way to Nepal to survey the damage. He explains how a combination of good luck and preparation helped to limit the scale of the destruction. He further describes the lessons Nepal’s experience can teach the international community about how to invest in sustainable development that takes into account a region’s risk for natural disaster.

This is obviously a timely conversation for the fact that we focus on the events in Nepal. But the long term lessons of what happen are also exceedingly important to the international development community and beyond.

Here’s how I donated to the humanitarian relief effort.

An earthquake in Katmandu may become the world’s deadliest natural disaster event, perhaps ever.

In 2013, I spoke with Jo Scheuer of the United Nations Development Program. He is an expert in disaster risk reduction so I asked him what disaster scenario keeps him up at night? Without hesitating he said that an earthquake in Katmandu Valley could bring death and destruction even worse than the Haiti earthquake.  He was sure an earthquake would strike — and that the international community was racing the clock to prepare for it. He explained why that region is so vulnerable and what the UN, the local government and international NGOs were doing to mitigate the risk.

 

When the Yarmouk refugee camp outside Damascus was overrun by ISIS, a bad situation got much worse. Ban Ki moon called it “the deepest circle of hell” and UN humanitarian agencies are struggling to help people escape from the encampment. On the line to discuss these efforts is Richard Right of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is a humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees in the middle east. Right relays the current situation in Yarmouk, describes the UN’s ongoing efforts to navigate between warring factions and the government, and tells the story of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been caught up in the Syrian civil war.

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are going to play a critical role in any potential nuclear deal with Iran. But who are these inspectors? What do they do? What can’t they do? Mark speaks with former IAEA inspector Thomas Shea who offers a grounds-eye view of what a robust inspection regime looks like. Dr. Shea also puts the potential inspections of Iran’s program in the broader context of the IAEA’s history of its work on behalf of international peace and security. We don’t yet know what the Iran nuclear deal might look like. But if a deal is struck, the IAEA will be the lynchpin that holds it all together. This episode gives you an excellent perspective of how these inspections actually work.