Integrating Disaster Reduction into Development: Recommendations for Policy-Makers

Abstract:

There has been a rapid escalation in the incidence of severe disaster events in recent decades. Total reported global costs have risen 15-fold over the past five decades, while numbers of people affected tripled between the 1970s and 1990s. Rising losses and associated increases in expenditure on post-disaster reconstruction have forced the issue of natural hazard risk management up the policy agenda of affected governments as well as multilateral and bilateral donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Disasters are increasingly recognised as a potential threat to sustainable development, poverty reduction initiatives and the achievement of a number of the Millennium Development Goals.This policy brief outlines recommendations for integrating assessment of natural hazard related risks in project design, appraisal and evaluation.