Baku:African regions have shown significant improvements in their ability to withstand and recover from disasters, marking the world's fastest progress since 2023, as highlighted in a major global study.
According to Anadolu Agency, North Africa achieved the largest regional increase with a five-point rise in resilience scores, while Southern Africa saw a four-point gain, as reported in the latest World Risk Poll by Lloyd's Register Foundation. Eastern Africa, Central, and Western Africa each recorded a three-point increase.
This progress is attributed to expanding internet access, stronger household preparedness, and improved financial resilience in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. However, the findings do not suggest that Africa is the most resilient continent overall, but rather that its regions have made the fastest advances during the surveyed period.
The World Risk Poll, in its fourth edition, was conducted by Gallup and involved over 143,000 participants across 140 countries and territories in 2025. The poll's Resilience Index measures people's capacity to absorb and recover from shocks on a scale of 0 to 100, evaluating individual resilience, household preparedness, community support, and broader societal conditions.
Despite the progress, the study highlighted significant disparities in access to disaster warnings within Africa. In Central and Western Africa, only 47% of disaster-affected adults reported receiving a warning. Globally, about 1.1 billion adults faced a disaster over the five years prior to the survey, with nearly 220 million receiving no warning.
The study further revealed that individuals in low-income countries were almost twice as likely to experience a disaster compared to those in wealthy nations. Only 64% of disaster-affected adults in low-income countries received warnings, compared to 84% in high-income countries. Additionally, receiving a warning did not necessarily result in protective action, with fewer than half of adults in low- and lower-middle-income countries taking precautionary measures, compared to 71% in high-income countries.
Mobile phones were identified as a key opportunity to bridge the warning gap. Of those who did not receive a warning, 77%, or more than 170 million people, owned a mobile phone. The likelihood of taking action increased when alerts were disseminated through multiple channels. Only 37% responded when warned through a single channel, compared to 51% for two channels, and 64% for three. Possible communication channels included mobile messages, television, social media, radio, and direct community outreach.
Globally, societal resilience, including trust in national institutions, rose from 63 points in 2021 to a record 66 in 2025, while individual resilience declined from 46 to 42 points, the lowest recorded by the index. The foundation emphasized the need for broader warning coverage alongside investments in household preparedness and community response capacity to ensure individuals have the necessary information, time, and resources to act before disasters occur.