Highlights and images for 4 June 2025

Everyone agrees that data is essential for successful  planning—the challenge lies in its collection, making it available and usable to the people, and truly applying it to decision making. For countries to collaborate and cooperate on disaster risk reduction (DRR), common standards for data and arrangements for data sharing are needed—and data for resilience will take even more effort. As one expert in risk information management advised, “Data sharing is old school. We need to go for data interoperability. In addition, we must to aim for data that is ‘just-in-time,’ not ‘just what is available’.”

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

Discussions on the first day of the official programme tackled this and other issues during high-level dialogues, a ministerial roundtable, and a multi-stakeholder plenary.

In a dialogue on harnessing risk understanding for a safer future, The Bahamas emphasized the need for data to not only focus on numbers when talking about disaster impacts, but also to consider the human loss in terms of health and livelihoods. Pakistan offered the Indus Water Treaty, a water-sharing agreement between India and Pakistan, as a model of data-sharing arrangements. She suggested that countries use legal instruments to enable data sharing. Delegates heard that UNDRR is currently working with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to develop common standards for disaster-related data and statistics.

A ministerial roundtable addressed financing for DRR, attended by 43 ministries. Delegates considered the interlinkages of disaster risk and climate change financing, innovative financial tools and policies, and social aspects of disaster investments.

In a special event on investing in resilience for Africa, delegates highlighted multiple opportunities for innovation and the potential sevenfold return on investment for any infrastructure developments in Africa.

During the multi-stakeholder plenary, one attendee cautioned that a technocratic approach to risk is likely to overlook the experience of marginalized communities, and that data are made more memorable when integrated with human stories. Human stories featured throughout the day as grassroots champions participated in many events around the venue.

Naomi Woyengu, a woman leader from Papua New Guinea, highlighted in the multi-stakeholder plenary the value of traditional knowledge in DRR. In a reflection on the role of rural women’s preparation for hard times, she recalled, “They saved the seeds when the yams grow bitter, they knew the signs…Our wisdom isn’t written in books. It lives in stories told under coconut trees. We are the plan, we are the first response…We walk tracks where roads have given out…We remember the women who came before, and we make space for the girls who come next. Logistics fail and funding stops, but still we cook…join us at the tables we build.”