Trend Eroding confidence in multilateral capacity to reduce risks

Summary

The report portrays a multilateral system under mounting pressure, where the most important risks are growing harder to handle. Respondents credit multilateral institutions with reasonable ability to detect risks and warn of new threats, but rate their ability to actually reduce risks as weak. Confidence in that reduction capacity fell for 23 of the 28 risks over the past two years, and the report cites stretched resources as one reason. Some 86 per cent of stakeholders said funding for risk reduction is inadequate. The UN Secretary-General also wrote in his preface that the institutions expected to respond are seen as less able to act. Even so, respondents still agree that joint action by several governments is far better than handling risks alone.