Disasters, violent conflict, and economic and climate-related turbulence continue to claim lives, destroy economies and livelihoods, and undermine development progress for millions of people. Crisis prevention, recovery and reducing the vulnerability of countries to catastrophe are cornerstones of UNDP’s work. As part of UNDP, the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) was established to support innovative approaches to crisis prevention, early warning and conflict resolution, as well as to help bridge the gap between emergency relief and long-term development.

In addition to responding quickly and flexibly to emerging crises, BCPR helps countries prone to recurring shocks to transform from a state of fragility to greater resilience. The strategic goal of BCPR is to assist partner countries both to remain resilient and make progress towards their development goals by developing lasting capacity to adapt to—and address creatively—the challenges posed by global turbulence.

The report for 2011 highlights a number of advances in the four key focus areas in which BCPR has a comparative advantage: (i) prevention of disasters and conflict; (ii) strengthening of development in post-crisis countries by reinforcing governance, the rule of law and livelihoods; (iii) Rapid response to emerging unexpected crises, supported through an innovative UNDP trust fund mechanism for crisis prevention and recovery, and (iv) Strengthening the coherence of the UN and the international community as a whole to better respond to crises and build peace.

2011 Highlights

• With assistance from UNDP, Tunisia saw more than 50 political parties engage in dialogue that helped to secure a consensus-based transition in the run-up to the country’s 2011 Constituent Assembly elections, after the previous government was deposed.
• In Libya, UNDP sent 13 experts to help the country get back on its feet as the transitional authority and civil society began recovery and stabilisation programmes following the Gadha’s ouster.
• In Haiti, UNDP generated more than 2 million workdays by employing over 30,000 people to remove and recycle debris, restore shelters, construct gabions to prevent floods, plant trees to reduce wind speed, and other activities in debris management and labor intensive works.
• In Pakistan, with UNDP backed emergency employment labour, 526 km of roads; 390 bridges; 4,012 drinking water facilities; 60 km of water courses; and 1,852 disaster resilient and energy efficient houses have been rebuilt or repaired, benefiting 1.2 million of flood affected people.
• In Sierra Leone, with UNDP help, and the establishment of “Saturday Courts” to tackle the backlog of cases, there has been an increase in the number of sexual and gender-based violence cases that were heard in 2011. By the end of the year, 78 percent of these had come before the courts (547 out of 700 cases were heard), and 27 percent were completed.
• In Armenia, with UNDP support to a national disaster observatory, the government has reduced potential disaster losses and is able to better plan for earthquake risk.