Reinventing DRR, the evolution of disaster risk reduction activities for the last 25 years - where we are now?

From unavoidable “acts of God”, the manner in which ‘natural’ disasters have been perceived has changed to emphasize underlying societal vulnerabilities in infrastructure, development and the pressures of a growing global population on limited natural resources. Evolving in turn, ‘disaster management’ has grown from relief and recovery work to be the disaster risk reduction initiatives seen across all sectors of the development industry today. With billions of dollars and sometimes generations required to recover from disaster events, DRR has never been more important to preserve and safeguard the growth nations and communities have built and their futures.

In today’s development industry, DRR is found at every level, from individual households to national and regional development plans, and is incorporated within every technical discipline from farming to disease control. Rarely has such a discipline been so widely and successfully adopted. In this context, through the expert panel event, we would like to critically examine the evolution in approaches to disaster risk reduction and current issues that arise questions such as:

• Why is Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) more important NOW than at any other time since the beginning of the twentieth century?
• Who are the actors in DRR industry now and how have their approaches changed over the years?
• How has media shaped the needs of the disaster management industry and the response of the key actors?
• With so many actors in industry, how does the industry both co-ordinate and regulate itself?
• How have DRR priorities changed? And why?
• What is the future of DRR?
• How much of the global development budgets are now dedicated to DRR and how is it spent?