According to data from the latest Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, the country scored 61%, just nine points behind the global average of 70%. Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), a global safety charity, has contracted global analytics firm Gallup to conduct the poll on a biennial basis starting in 2019.
Gallup’s research consultant Benedict Vigers said the average recorded by Malaysia in this latest data was due in part to the fact that the country was less disaster prone compared with its Southeast Asian neighbours.
In 2023, 17% of adults in Malaysia reported experiencing a disaster related to a natural hazard in the past five years, Vigers said, adding it was “well below” the 40% average for Southeast Asia.
“No other country in the region has a lower rate of experiencing disaster than Malaysia. Still having an early warning system that is set up to reach all people in a country is a vital part of policy response to disasters.”
Apart from Malaysia, Indonesia scored below the global average, registering 52%.
On the other end, coverage rates for early warnings were nearly universal in other countries in the region, the report noted.
Vigers said that scoring above the global average of 70%, which Vietnam and the Philippines recorded with 99% and 92%, respectively, was good as it meant that a greater proportion of people were warned before disaster struck, which was known to be effective in saving lives and livelihoods.
Malaysia has spent some RM1 billion on a national flood forecasting and warning programme or PRAB.
The first phase of PRAB had successfully developed hydrological data and flood warnings that were used by several government agencies to manage the floods, including the National Disaster Management Agency, the Civil Defence Force and the police.
Vigers found that Southeast Asia also stood out when it came to disaster preparedness, which includes household planning and feelings of being able to protect oneself.
Disaster preparedness, he noted, was “vitally important” in building resilience against natural hazards, adding that it saved both lives and livelihoods as well as minimised the shock of disasters, allowing people to bounce back faster from them.
“Higher-income countries tend to have higher levels of planning and agency in the face of disasters. Yet, many Southeast Asian countries buck this trend, performing strongly on these metrics despite being lower-middle-income countries,” Vigers said.
The top four countries worldwide where the highest proportion of households had a disaster plan were all in Southeast Asia.
LRF’s senior campaigns manager, Ed Morrow, said early warnings were a vital part of the equation when it came to improving resilience in the face of natural hazards, including floods.
By measuring the coverage of these disaster warning systems across the globe, the World Risk Poll was able to provide a crucial barometer of how the UN’s Early Warnings for All Initiative was performing, he said.
“It is encouraging to see Malaysia investing in flood warning systems, and hopefully this will see the country catch up further with the global average when we conduct the next poll in 2025,” he said.
He said it was also critical that people had plans in place and knew how to respond when they received such warnings.