Frequently asked questions on disaster risk reduction

Ensuring humanitarian aid is provided fast to those most in need in order to save lives, relieve suffering and protect dignity.

What is disaster risk reduction?

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies aim to minimise the effects of natural hazards such as earthquakes and cyclones on communities by reducing their vulnerability to loss of life and livelihoods, within a broad context of sustainable development. This may include protecting and diversifying livelihoods, for example through crop diversification as well as tackling chronic food insecurity.

Tackling the causes of hazardous events is also crucial, for example reducing the likelihood of landslides through reforestation or ensuring appropriate cropping and water-use practices in drought-prone areas.

What disaster risk reduction programmes is DFID supporting?

DFID is funding significant DRR programmes in countries susceptible to disasters. DFID is funding a variety of organisations which work at global, regional and national levels. For example, we are one of the leading donors (providing £1 million per year) to the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, which co-ordinates the international disaster risk reduction system.

We are also contributing £4.4 million over three years to the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction, which assists governments to incorporate DRR into their national planning. DFID also supports the DRR work of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), specifically to support DRR work at the community level. In addition, DFID is providing funding of over £13 million to a number of NGOs for community-based DRR work.

What are the trends in disasters over recent years?

The number and frequency of disasters is growing. According to Munich Re (one of the world’s largest re-insurers), economic losses from disasters in the 1990s totalled over US$608 billion, greater than losses over the four previous decades combined. This is supported by research by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), which found that there were 414 natural disasters in 2007, compared with an average of 394 for the period 2000-06.

Most experts agree that the number of disasters will increase as climate change and global warming generate more severe weather-related events.

How are disasters and poverty linked?

The links between disasters and poverty are clear. The capacity to cope and reduce disaster risk is much more limited in poor countries, so people are more vulnerable. The poorest are therefore worst affected and suffer the most. Impacts on communities can be severe: disasters increase poverty and malnutrition, and reduce disease resistance. Families made poor, hungry or ill often have to send their children out to work rather than to school, and women and girls may be left with poorer health and an increased workload.

Disasters affect developing countries' economic development as they damage infrastructure and affect productivity and growth. They also slow down progress towards the Millennium Development Goals - eight specific goals to be met by 2015 that aim to combat extreme poverty.

Read more about the impacts of disasters (34kb) on efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

What are the economic benefits of disaster risk reduction?

There is growing evidence of the costs of disasters and the economic benefits of DRR. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that, in low income countries between 1997 and 2001, the average economic cost for each individual, large scale, natural disaster event was over 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Recent World Bank estimates have placed this figure in the range of 2-15% of GDP for these countries.

A number of studies assessing the relative costs and benefits of individual disaster risk reducing initiatives have indicated high potential returns for DRR. A tentative interpretation of the results of these studies is that for every dollar invested in disaster risk reduction, between 2 and 4 dollars are returned in terms of avoided or reduced disaster impacts. DFID is working to expand this evidence base, in order to strengthen the case for increased investment in DRR.

Why have development organisations under-invested in disaster risk reduction?

One factor is that perverse incentives work against DRR. Governments may know that they can rely on the international community to respond generously when a disaster hits, which could be a disincentive for investing in prevention. Disaster risk reduction is long-term and low profile.

Disaster response, on the other hand, is highly visible and therefore has received greater political attention than DRR. Whilst continuing to respond generously to disasters, we must alter the balance and invest more in prevention. In 2005, at the Kobe Conference on DRR in Japan, 168 UN Member States signed up to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), which sets out how the international community plans to reduce disaster risks by 2015.

Why do we need to better integrate disaster risk reduction into development?

Extreme events only lead to disasters when people can’t cope, which is a failure of development. Political systems recognise the need for strong intervention following a disaster. The challenge is to increase the focus on DRR. DFID is working with developing country governments to consider how disaster risk can be more effectively incorporated into national planning processes. DFID is also committed to integrating DRR into its own development programmes.

How can we encourage developing countries to invest more in disaster risk reduction?

We need to help governments make the choices of where to invest. At the moment we lack sufficient information on the costs and benefits of reducing the impacts of disasters. We need a better evidence base for helping to decide which DRR interventions to invest in. These choices are pretty tough for cash-strapped governments. Do you invest in health or education that will bring a rapid benefit, or DRR when a disaster may not strike for 50 years?

DFID has been funding the Institute for Environmental and Economic Transition (ISET) to study and assess the costs and benefits of proactive disaster risk management in South Asia. The study is due to be completed at the end of March 2009.

What is the impact of climate change on disasters?

Global warming is resulting in an increase in the frequency and severity of climatic extremes, which increases the frequency of weather-related disasters. Climate change hits the poor hardest and the greatest impacts are likely to be on food security, the productivity of agricultural export crops, health, and water security and quality. It is also likely to increase the displacement of people as a result of flooding or drought.

Climate change is a top priority for the UK government, and DFID is contributing to a range of international environment and climate change initiatives, including £800 million through the Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) to help fight climate change and poverty and £20 million through the UN to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

DFID has also recently commissioned a study on the linkages between DRR and climate change adaptation and we are actively exploring these linkages within DFID and the programmes we support.

How can disaster risk reduction measures help to tackle chronic food insecurity in Africa?

In 2005, over 30 million people in Africa required food aid to meet their immediate needs. Yet the response of governments and the international community has usually been to treat this as a series of unexpected disasters through the provision of humanitarian relief. DFID is committed to moving away from this short term and often inefficient relief, to meeting needs with stable multi-year resources delivered through governments.

In Africa, this will be implemented through government-led safety net (i.e. social protection) programmes, which will also work to develop more comprehensive food security strategies and programmes to help people to "graduate" from safety nets. These strategies will need to be placed within the context of countries' planning processes.

The UK has committed to allocate 10% of its contribution for each natural disaster to prepare for and mitigate the impact of future disasters. How is this money being spent?

So far, DFID has committed £7.5 million following the Indian Ocean Tsunami, £5.4 million following the Pakistan earthquake, £500,000 following the Yogyakarta (Indonesia) earthquake, £4.5 million following Cyclone Nargis in Burma and £355,000 following the China earthquake.

In the tsunami-affected region, DFID is collaborating with local United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) teams to design and implement programmes to strengthen governments' disaster response and mitigation capacity. We are also contributing to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission to develop a Tsunami Warning System for the Indian Ocean that translates into effective response at the community level.

In Pakistan, DFID has been contributing to the World Health Organisation’s Disease Early Warning System (DEWS). This system is used to track the occurrence of epidemic-prone diseases and to provide an appropriate response. For more examples of where DFID has committed 10% of its money see DFID’s DRR 10% commitment factsheet (44kb).