Intro:

An online tool that measures countries’ progress towards achieving global targets for disaster-risk reduction will help save lives and livelihoods in the Pacific.

That’s the opinion expressed by a UN official who has just trained representatives from 10 nations in the region how to use the so-called Sendai Framework Monitor, which helps track disaster losses.

Andy McElroy is with UNISDR, the UN office that coordinates international action to address disaster risk, particularly how it relates to climate change.

Speaking from Fiji, which is bracing for its second cyclone in eight days, Mr McElroy told Julia Dean how the tool will inform policy in a region where floods, droughts and other extreme weather events are intensifying.