On an average, 232 million people are affected by different types of disasters every year. Disaster risks have been on the rise due to population growth, unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation, conflicts and competition for scarce resources, climate change, disease epidemics, poverty and pressure from development within high-risk zones. Hence, disaster risk reduction is the need of the hour.
1. Disaster Risk Reduction and the Hyogo Framework
- Recognizing the importance of disaster risk reduction, in 2005, 168 governments and all leading development and humanitarian actors signed the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA).
- They committed themselves to a ten-year multi-stakeholder and multi-sector plan to invest in disaster risk reduction as a means to building disaster-resilient societies.
- The HFA is described as a global blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts between 2005 and 2015, providing specific operational guidance for promoting disaster risk reduction.