Out of Disaster into Preparedness

The Time is Now to Capitalize on Risk Mitigation Opportunities

Major disas­ters provide impor­tant learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. People are motivated by the loss of life to be more recep­tive to new approaches and strate­gies for risk reduc­tion in the after­math of a crisis. In 2008, 321 natural disas­ters claimed more than 235,000 lives and cost the world an estimated $181 billion (accord­ing to The World Bank).

A long-term approach to build­ing disas­ter resilience is criti­cal, sadly however, disas­ter risk is often only fully acknowl­edged follow­ing a major event. The disas­ter recov­ery period thus provides an oppor­tu­nity to once again sound the alarm and prose­ly­tize for increas­ing disas­ter prepared­ness and risk reduc­tion funding at the federal, state and local levels.

Climate change now compounds the risks for natural disas­ters, but also provides an oppor­tu­nity to empower commu­ni­ties to manage that risk. Consider that disas­ter risk reduc­tion and climate change adapta­tion funding can actually be integrated into relief and recov­ery budgets. How about an in-depth review of the relevant funding instru­ments and practices to ensure that those insti­tu­tions most able to effect change have access to relevant funding  facil­i­tated by local and national governments?

Let’s get serious about risk reduc­tion partner­ships and collab­o­ra­tion with practices that engage local govern­ment, civil society and NGOs in collec­tive decision-making and tangi­ble strate­gies to reduce risk and strengthen early warning. Technology MUST be utilized more effec­tively if we are to achieve enhanced resiliency and risk reduc­tion with the limited funds we are currently willing to allocate.

This fleet­ing moment needs to be capital­ized upon by policy­mak­ers, practi­tion­ers and the public alike — let’s do it together.