OCD: Philippines top country at risk

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) on Thursday said the Philippines ranked highest in the 2024 World Risk Report, underscoring the need for a “multi-sectoral approach” to disaster risk reduction and management.

“The Philippines taking the top spot in the 2024 World Risk Index (WRI) Report is a clear reminder that we need to keep working together to tackle and address the challenges and issues at hand,” the OCD said in a statement.

The report assessed the risks across 193 countries, conducted by the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.

The top 10 countries with the highest WRI scores are as follows: Philippines (46.91), Indonesia (41.13), India (40.96), Colombia (37.81), Mexico (35.93), Myanmar (35.85), Mozambique (34.44), Russia (28.12), Bangladesh (27.73), and Pakistan (27.02).

Factors considered include exposure, vulnerability, susceptibility, and the lack of coping and adaptive capacities to crises such as extreme natural disasters, conflicts, pandemics, and wars.

The OCD noted that this year’s World Risk Index Report emphasized the interconnected crisis factors impacting populations, considering various types of risks to determine a country’s overall risk profile.

“It is essential to continuously adopt a multi-sectoral approach in all aspects of disaster risk reduction and management,” the OCD said. It also highlighted that collaborative interventions from different sectors are crucial to addressing pressing needs.

The OCD emphasized the “enormity of this task.”

“In its capacity, it is committed to addressing the numerous factors involved,” the statement said.

Collaborating with various sectors, the OCD will continue to promote comprehensive and concrete efforts to reduce risks.

“This will involve implementing capacity-building interventions and other measures aimed at minimizing risks and improving the country’s risk profile,” it added.