Too often, we respond too late to disasters, when livelihoods and lives have already been swept away or are in an extremely vulnerable situation. If we invest in disaster resilience, countries and communities should be much better prepared to cope and bounce back when disasters happen.
This is of growing importance with the expectation of increasing severity and frequency of shocks in the coming years as a result of climate change, resource scarcity and urban migration.In 2011 alone, 302 disasters claimed nearly 30,000 lives, affected 206 million people and inflicted damages worth at least US$366 billion.
Building disaster resilience will become more pivotal as countries seek to protect development investments from the potential impact of disasters which can wipe out development gains. It’s also much better value for money. A UK-funded study found that in Kenya - over a 20 year period - every $1 spent on disaster resilience resulted in $2.9 saved in the form of reduced humanitarian spend, avoided losses and development gains. Further details and a summary of the study are available.
Within DFID we have committed to build disaster resilience into all our country programmes by 2015. We have produced an approach paper on disaster resilience, along with a two page overview, to help take forward the debate with partners. As a first step in building disaster resilience, we have developed a set of minimum standards of what is required of our country offices. Our aim is to meet these minimum standards in a first set of eight country programmes by April 2013.
Progress is already being made in many of these countries. In Kenya we are scaling up our support to safety nets and livelihoods and making these programmes more flexible to future shocks. In Bangladesh, we are investing in the construction of schools that double up as cyclone shelters. And in the Caribbean, we have supported the development of the insurance sector, which is helping minimise the impact of disasters by transferring risk away from vulnerable governments and communities.
You can read more on the progress being made in the following case studies.
DFID is also developing a set of guidance notes for building disaster resilience and promoting disaster resilience internationally. The Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, co-chairs with Helen Clark an informal group of Political Champions to promote greater focus and investment on disaster resilience. The group met in the margins of the UN General Assembly on 26 September.