A siren sounds along the coast, twenty-four hours before the flood reaches the houses. Families have time to move the cattle up onto the dyke and close the school before reaching the brick shelter. Where the siren is missing, the same flood carries off in one night what years of work had built. These disasters cost hundreds of billions of dollars every year, and their victims live first in the countries with the fewest means to protect themselves. President Macky Sall has made disaster risk reduction one of the commitments of his candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General.

Rising costs. Climate change multiplies extreme events and raises their intensity. A disaster wipes out years of development in a few hours, and a poor country can lose a whole share of its national product to one, where a rich country absorbs the shock.

Early warning. A warning given twenty-four hours before a storm cuts damage by about a third, according to the United Nations. Yet half of all countries lack early warning systems worthy of the name. The Organization has set itself the goal of covering every inhabitant of the planet by 2027.

The Sendai Framework. A dollar invested in prevention saves several in reconstruction. Adopted in 2015, the Sendai Framework commits states to reduce losses in lives and property by 2030.

A 2027 deadline. Sirens belong to national weather services and to the donors that fund them. Before the General Assembly, it is the Secretary-General who answers for the 2027 calendar: he brings together the agencies and the states bound by that commitment, and makes public, country by country, where the warning is still missing. This candidacy intends to have prevention, which is counted in houses left standing, written into every development programme the Organization funds. The record of coverage will measure the commitment made for 2027.

Prevention in the vision. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin this commitment to prevention. The same experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.

Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015) and the United Nations "Early Warnings for All" initiative are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net