GENEVA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on Thursday announced the beginning of an historic effort to collect comprehensive data on disaster losses to help countries reduce their impact.

Newly-appointed UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for disaster risk reduction, Mami Mizutori, said, "It is impossible to prevent disasters and to manage risk if a country is not measuring its disaster losses, particularly at the local level, for both small-scale and large-scale events."

She said such losses are a great setback for efforts to eradicate poverty as UNISDR announced the beginning of an historic effort to collect comprehensive data on disaster losses.

It launched the Sendai Framework Monitor, a tested online tool designed to capture data on achievement of five targets agreed by UN Member States: reducing mortality from disasters and the numbers of disaster-affected people.

Such data will also help to reduce economic losses, decrease damage to critical infrastructure and help record the number of countries with national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction.

Mizutori said: "The Sendai Framework Monitor will provide inputs to the first report on achieving progress on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in July."

She noted that climate change and extreme weather events contribute to pushing 26 million people into poverty every year, so improving how the managing of risk is vital and requires a deeper understanding of where losses are occurring.

Mizutori said it is not just for major internationally recorded events but silent, small-recurring events such as floods and droughts can take a huge toll on communities which lack essential health services and other coping capacities.