Disaster Risk Reduction and Development

The heart of the disaster risk reduction agenda lies in the prevention of catastrophic threats to human life and the reduction of people’s exposure to such events. At a time when populations are growing, people are inhabiting increasingly marginal land and the incidence of natural hazards is increasing because of climate change, this poses a massive challenge to the development and humanitarian communities. It is vital that risk reduction features more centrally in the development agenda if preventable death and impoverishment are to be avoided in the future.

The limited ability of poor people to take risks and innovate puts a brake on development and hampers progress towards the MDGs. But it is the effects of risk over which they may have no control that dominate the lives of many of the world’s poorest. At this level of vulnerability, even a comparatively small shock can spell disaster. The growing numbers of poor people who face exposure to natural hazards are doubly vulnerable: to the direct physical impact of flood,
drought or cyclone, and to the consequent loss of property, livelihoods and access to services.

But some risks can never be transferred. No amount of compensation could bring back the 100,000 or more who died in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in May 2008. However, many of these deaths could have been prevented with relatively modest investment in early warning and preparedness, as experience from Bangladesh shows.