DRR: Conceptual Discussion

DRR: According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
What is Disaster Risk Reduction?
Disaster risk reduction (DRR)
There is no such thing as a 'natural' disaster, only natural hazards. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) aims to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones, through an ethic of prevention. Disasters often follow natural hazards. A disaster's severity depends on how much impact a hazard has on society and the environment. The scale of the impact in turn depends on the choices we make for our lives and for our environment. These choices relate to how we grow our food, where and how we build our homes, what kind of government we have, how our financial system works and even what we teach in schools. Each decision and action makes us more vulnerable to disasters - or more resilient to them.

Disaster risk reduction is about choices.

Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyse and reduce the causal factors of disasters. Reducing exposure to hazards, lessening vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness for adverse events are all examples of disaster risk reduction. "The more governments, UN agencies, organizations, businesses and civil society understand risk and vulnerability, the better equipped they will be to mitigate disasters when they strike and save more lives" -- Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General

Disaster risk reduction is everyone's business.

Disaster risk reduction includes disciplines like disaster management, disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness, but DRR is also part of sustainable development. In order for development activities to be sustainable they must also reduce disaster risk. On the other hand, unsound
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DRR: Conceptual Discussion

development policies will increase disaster risk - and disaster losses. Thus, DRR involves every part of society, every part of government, and every part of the professional and private sector.

Hyogo Framework for DRR

Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters
The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) is a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards. It was adopted by 168 Member States of the United Nations in 2005 at the World Disaster Reduction Conference, which took place just a few weeks after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. "Disaster risk reduction is an obligation for all -- donors, governments and the private sector. We cannot wait for more disasters to happen to understand the benefits of Disaster Risk Reduction policies." -- Toni Frisch, Swiss Humanitarian Aid Department The HFA is the first plan to explain, describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses. It was developed and agreed on with the many partners needed to reduce disaster risk - governments, international agencies, disaster experts and many others - bringing them into a common system of coordination. The HFA outlines five priorities for action, and offers guiding principles and practical means for achieving disaster resilience. Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 by building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters. This means reducing loss of lives and social, economic, and environmental assets when hazards strike.

Priority Action 1: Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation.
Countries that develop policy, legislative and institutional frameworks for disaster risk reduction and that are able to develop and track progress through specific and measurable indicators have greater capacity to manage risks and to achieve widespread consensus for, engagement in and compliance with disaster risk reduction measures across all sectors of society

Priority Action 2: Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.
The starting point for reducing disaster risk and for promoting a culture of disaster resilience lies in the knowledge of the hazards and the physical, social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities to disasters that most societies face, and of the ways in which hazards and vulnerabilities are changing in the short and long term, followed by action taken on the basis of that knowledge.
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DRR: Conceptual Discussion

Priority Action 3: Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels.
Disasters can be substantially reduced if people are well informed and motivated towards a culture of disaster prevention and resilience, which in turn requires the collection, compilation and dissemination of relevant knowledge and information on hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities.

Priority Action 4: Reduce the underlying risk factors.

Disaster risks related to changing social, economic, environmental conditions and land use, and the impact of hazards associated with geological events, weather, water, climate variability and climate change, are addressed in sector development planning and programmes as well as in post-disaster situations.

Priority Action 5: Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.
At times of disaster, impacts and losses can be substantially reduced if authorities, individuals and communities in hazard-prone areas are well prepared and ready to act and are equipped with the knowledge and capacities for effective disaster management.

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DRR: Conceptual Discussion

DRR: According to the World Meteorological Organization

WMO Disaster Risk Reduction Programme Disaster risk reduction is at the core of the mission of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of its 188 Members. WMO, through its scientific and technical programmes, its network of Global Meteorological Centres and Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres, and the NMHSs, provides scientific and technical services. This includes observing, detecting, monitoring, predicting and early warning of a wide range of weather, climate- and water-related hazards. Through a coordinated approach, and working with its partners, WMO addresses the information needs and requirements of the disaster risk management community, effectively and in a timely fashion.

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DRR: Conceptual Discussion

Every year, disasters related to meteorological, hydrological and climate hazards cause significant loss of life, and set back economic and social development by years, if not decades. Between 1980 and 2005, nearly 7500 natural disasters worldwide took the lives of over 2 million people and produced economic losses estimated at over 1.2 trillion US dollars. Of this, 90 per cent of the natural disasters, 72.5 per cent of casualties and 75 per cent of economic losses were caused by weather-, climate- water-related hazards such as droughts, floods, windstorms, tropical cyclones, storm surges, extreme temperatures, land slides and wild fires, or by health epidemics and insect infestations directly linked to meteorological and hydrological conditions (Global distribution chart here).

Despite the rising global trend in the occurrence of disasters and associated economic losses, global loss of life associated with meteorological, hydrological or climate-related hazards in 2005, decreased to one-tenth of levels in the 1950s (comparison chart bellow).

This remarkable decline is a demonstration that preparedness and prevention, combined with effective emergency management and early warning systems, can significantly contribute to reducing impacts of hazards on human life. This was acknowledged during the Second World Conference on Disaster
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Risk Reduction (Hyogo, Kobe, Japan 18-22 January 2005) when 168 countries adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA): Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. HFA calls for a paradigm shift: from emergency response to disaster risk management, a more proactive, holistic and systematic approach. Implementation of HFA at the international, regional and national levels is critically dependent on contributions to be made by WMO and the NMHSs

About the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme WMO established its DRR Programme (in 2003) to strengthen and integrate disaster risk reduction processes related to meteorological, hydrological and climate services of its WMO operational and research networks in all countries, particularly those with least resources. Through this crosscutting Programme, WMO is developing an organization-wide coordinating framework to achieve these objectives at the international, regional and national levels. Vision The vision of the DRR Programme is : "To enhance the contributions of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, in a more cost-effective, systematic and sustainable manner, towards the protection of lives, livelihoods and property, through enhanced capabilities and cooperation in the field of disaster risk reduction at national to international levels."

Strategic Goals WMO strategic goals in disaster risk reduction are derived from key activities of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) falling under the mandates of the NMHSs. The strategic goals were approved by WMO Congress XV (the supreme governing body of WMO) in 2007: 1. Development, improvement and sustainability of early warning systems in particular related to scientific and technical infrastructures, systems and capabilities for research, observing, detecting, forecasting and warnings of weather-, water- and climate-related hazards; 2. Development, improvement and sustainability of standardized hazard databases and metadata, systems, methods, tools and applications of modern technologies such as geographical information systems for recording, analyzing and providing hazard information for risk assessment, sectoral planning, risk transfer and other informed decisionmaking;
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3. Development and delivery of warnings, specialized forecasts and other products and services that are timely, understandable to those at risk and driven by requirements of disaster risk reduction decision processes and operations engaging socio-economic sectors; 4. Stimulate a culture of resilience and prevention through strengthening of capacities for better integration of meteorological, hydrological and climate' products and services in disaster risk reduction across all socio economic sectors, such as land use planning and infrastructure design and continued public education and outreach campaigns; and,; 5. Strengthening cooperation and partnerships of WMO and NMHSs in national, regional and international user forums, mechanisms and structures for implementation of disaster risk reduction. Implementation Plan Capacity building can best be achieved through strategic partnership and coordination of WMO with international and regional agencies that influence DRM policies, planning, funding, and institutional development, particularly noting the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN-International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR), regional inter-governmental DRM agencies and economic groupings as well as development banks taking into account national policies, strategies, priorities and local conditions. WMOs strategic goals in disaster risk reduction are being realized through an action plan, built upon the following five major thrusts: Modernize NMHSs and observing networks Implement national operational multi-hazard early warning systems Strengthen hazard analysis and hydrometeorological risk assessment tools Strengthen NMHSs cooperation with civil protection and disaster risk management agencies; and 5. Coordinate training and public outreach programmes. This action plan is being implemented through national and regional projects involving WMO Programmes, Technical Commissions, Regional Associations and partner organizations that assist Members in strengthening their capacities in disaster risk reduction. Governance The guidance and oversight to the DRR Programme is provided by the WMO Executive Council Working Group on Service Delivery (EC WG SD). The implementation of the Programme engaged a number of inter-commission task teams, with experts drawn from WMO Technical Commissions Commission for Basic Systems (CBS), Commission for Hydrology (CHy), Commission for Climatology (CCl), Working with the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) and Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM).
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1. 2. 3. 4.

DRR: Conceptual Discussion

DRR:AccordingtotheWikipedia Disaster risk reduction

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them: here it has been strongly influenced by the mass of research on vulnerability that has appeared in print since the mid1970s.[1] It is the responsibility of development and relief agencies alike and it should be an integral part of the way such organizations do their work, not an add-on or one-off action. DRR is very wide-ranging, therefore. Its scope is much broader and deeper than conventional emergency management. There is potential for DRR initiatives in just about every sector of development and humanitarian work. The most commonly cited definition of DRR is one used by UN agencies such as UNISDR and UNDP: "The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development."[2] Only 4% of the estimated $10 billion in annual humanitarian assistance is devoted to prevention and yet every dollar spent on risk reduction saves between $5 and $10 in economic losses from disasters.[3]

Developmentoftheconceptandapproach
The evolution of disaster management thinking and practice since the 1970s has seen a progressively wider and deeper understanding of why disasters happen, accompanied by more integrated, holistic approaches to reduce their impact on society. The modern paradigm of disaster management disaster risk reduction (DRR) represents the latest step along this path. DRR is a relatively new concept in formal terms, but it embraces much earlier thinking and practice, and it is now being widely embraced by international agencies, governments, disaster planners and civil society organisations.[4] DRR is such an all-embracing concept that it has proved difficult to define or explain in detail, although the broad idea is clear enough. Inevitably, there are different definitions of the term in the technical literature but it is generally understood to mean the broad development and application of policies, strategies and practices to minimise vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout society The term disaster risk management (DRM) is often used in the same context and to mean much the same thing: a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing risks of all kinds associated with hazards and human activities. It is more properly applied to the operational aspects of DRR: the practical implementation of DRR initiatives.
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DRR: Conceptual Discussion

There have been growing calls for greater clarity about the components of DRR, and about indicators of progress towards resilience a challenge which the international community took up at the UNs World Conference on Disaster Reduction(WCDR) in Kobe, Japan, in 2005, only days after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The WCDR began the process of pushing international agencies and national governments beyond the vague rhetoric of most policy statements and towards setting clear targets and commitments for DRR. The first step in this process was the formal approval at the WCDR of the Hyogo Framework for Action (20052015) (HFA). This is the first internationally accepted framework for DRR. It sets out an ordered sequence of objectives (outcome strategic goals priorities), with five priorities for action attempting to capture the main areas of DRR intervention. The UN's biennial Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction provides an opportunity for the UN and its member states to review progress against the Hyogo Framework. It held its first session from 57 June 2007 in Geneva, Switzerland. UN initiatives have helped to refine and promote the concept at international level, stimulated initially by the UN's designation of the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.

SomeissuesandchallengesinDRR
Priorities It is unrealistic to expect progress in every aspect of DRR: capacities and resources are insufficient. Governments and other organisations have to make what are in effect investment decisions, choosing which aspects of DRR to invest in, when, and in what sequence. This is made more complicated by the fact that many of the interventions advocated are developmental rather than directly related to disaster management. Most existing DRR guidance sidesteps this issue. One way of focusing is to consider only actions that are intended specifically to reduce disaster risk. This would at least distinguish from more general efforts towards sustainable development. The concept of invulnerable development attempts this: in this formulation, invulnerable development is development directed towards reducing vulnerability to disaster, comprising decisions and activities that are intentionally designed and implemented to reduce risk and susceptibility, and also raise resistance and resilience to disaster.[5]
Partnershipsandinterorganisationalcoordination

No single group or organisation can address every aspect of DRR. DRR thinking sees disasters as complex problems demanding a collective response. Co-ordination even in conventional emergency management is difficult, for many different organisations may converge on a disaster area to assist. Across the broader spectrum of DRR, the relationships between different types of organisation and between different sectors (public, private and non-profit, as well as communities) become much more extensive and complex. DRR requires strong vertical and horizontal linkages (central-local relations become important). In terms of involving civil society
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organisations, it should mean thinking broadly about which types of organisation to involve (i.e. not just conventional NGOs but also such organisations as trades unions, religious institutions, amateur radio operators (as in the USA and India), universities and research institutions). Communities and their organisations Traditional emergency management/civil defence thinking makes two misleading assumptions about communities. First, it sees other forms of social organisation (voluntary and communitybased organisations, informal social groupings and families) as irrelevant to emergency action. Spontaneous actions by affected communities or groups (e.g. search and rescue) are viewed as irrelevant or disruptive, because they are not controlled by the authorities. The second assumption is that disasters produce passive victims who are overwhelmed by crisis, or dysfunctional behaviour (panic, looting, self-seeking activities). They therefore need to be told what to do, and their behaviour must be controlled in extreme cases, through the imposition of martial law. There is plenty of sociological research to refute such 'myths'.[6][7] An alternative viewpoint, informed by a considerable volume of research, emphasises the importance of communities and local organisations in disaster risk management. The rationale for community-based disaster risk management that it responds to local problems and needs, capitalises on local knowledge and expertise, is cost-effective, improves the likelihood of sustainability through genuine ownership of projects, strengthens community technical and organisational capacities, and empowers people by enabling them to tackle these and other challenges. Local people and organisations are the main actors in risk reduction and disaster response in any case.[8] Governance The DRR approach requires redefining the role of government disaster reduction. It is generally agreed that national governments should be main actors in DRR: they have a duty to ensure the safety of citizens, the resources and capacity to implement large-scale DRR, a mandate to direct or co-ordinate the work of others, and they create the necessary policy and legislative frameworks. These policies and programmes have to be coherent. More research is needed into why some governments are more successful than others in disaster management. There is still no general consensus on what drives changes in policy and practice. The shifting relationship between central government and other actors is another area requiring research. Accountability and rights The principle of accountability lies at the heart of genuine partnership and participation in DRR. It applies to state institutions that are expected to be accountable through the democratic process, and to private sector and non-profit organizations which are not subject to democratic control. Accountability is still an emerging issue in disaster reduction work. Accountability should be primarily towards those who are vulnerable to hazards and affected by them.

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DRR: Conceptual Discussion

Many organisations working in international aid and development are now committing themselves to a rights-based approach. This tends to encompass both human rights (i.e. those that are generally accepted through international agreements) and other rights that an agency believes should be accepted as human rights. In such contexts, the language of rights may be used vaguely, with a risk of causing confusion. Security against disasters is not generally regarded as a right although it is addressed in some international codes, usually indirectly. The idea of a right to safety is also being discussed in some circles.

ReferencesforWikiarticle
1. 2. 3. 4. ^WisnerBetal.2004,AtRisk:Naturalhazards,peoplesvulnerabilityanddisasters (London:Routledge) ^LivingWithRisk:AGlobalReviewofDisasterReductionInitiatives,UNISDR,2004;pg. 17 ^ANeedlessTollofNaturalDisasters,OpEd,BostonGlobe,23March2006byEric Schwartz(UNSecretaryGeneralsDeputySpecialEnvoyforTsunamiRecovery ^UNISDR2004,LivingwithRisk:Aglobalreviewofdisasterreductioninitiatives (Geneva:UNInternationalStrategyforDisasterReduction), http://www.unisdr.org/eng/about_isdr/bdlwr2004eng.htm ^McEntireDA2000,Sustainabilityorinvulnerabledevelopment?Proposalsforthe currentshiftinparadigms.AustralianJournalofEmergencyManagement15(1):5861. http://www.ema.gov.au/www/emaweb/RWPAttach.nsf/VAP/(3273BD3F76A7A5DEDAE36942A 54D7D90)~AJEM_Vol15_Issue1.pdf/$file/AJEM_Vol15_Issue1.pdf ^QuarantelliEL1998,MajorCriteriaforJudgingDisasterPlanningandManagingand theirApplicabilityinDevelopingSocieties(UniversityofDelaware:DisasterResearchCenter, PreliminaryPaper268). ^DynesRR1994,CommunityEmergencyPlanning:FalseAssumptionsand InappropriateAnalogies.InternationalJournalofMassEmergenciesandDisasters12(2)141 158. ^MaskreyA1989,DisasterMitigation:ACommunityBasedApproach(Oxford: Oxfam).

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