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DRR Community Voices

The DRR Community Voices share personal stories and perspectives from the disaster risk reduction trenches on reducing risk and building resilience.

  • Our posts from both practitioners and academics reach a global audience and can influence policy, practices and approaches.
  • We invite you to propose your own blog and submit it for review.

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  • Most articles can be republished under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO Deed.
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Piggy bank behind umbrella to cover and protect from downturn arrow symbolizing protection n or defensive from crisis.
Blog
Arighna Mitra
The high price of disasters and how to avoid paying it
The 2025 IDDRR calls for a course correction: “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters.” For governments that make up the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), with support from the Secretariat, this is a practical agenda
A cityscape with a digital hologram effect imposing a futuristic graph overlay on a daytime skyline.
Blog
Lea Schollerer Christian Geiß
Giving a glimpse into the future: How AI can help communities prepare
There is a fundamental challenge: how do we protect people from disasters that haven't happened yet, in places where they don't yet live? The answer requires us to understand where vulnerable populations might be located in the future.
Collapsed houses following the Kedarnath floods 2013 in Uttarakhand, India.
Blog
Sanjay K. Srivastava
From cloudbursts to cascades: How to prevent the Himalayas from breaking
The devastating floods, landslides, and cloudbursts that hit Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttarakhand in the summer of 2025 reveal how the Himalayan region's risks are outpacing its resilience.
Woman checking weather using an app on smartphone on street.
Blog
Dr. Robert Sakic Trogrlic Dr. Mirianna Budimir
From vision to reality: making early warnings ‘truly’ multi-hazard
Multi‑hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) dominate the narrative-from global frameworks to national plans. Yet what "multi‑hazard" means when applied practically to an EWS remains fuzzy, and realities on the ground lag behind.
Drone aerial video of Rangiroa atoll island motu and coral reef in French Polynesia, Tahiti.
Blog
Ilan Kelman Frederick H. Damon Dirk H. R. Spennemann Julius Riese
Tsunamis and atolls: why warnings must be locally meaningful
The usual tsunami advice to move inland and to move to high ground might not be possible for many atolls. Generic, international, trans-oceanic warnings need to become locally meaningful. What advice should be given for surviving tsunamis?
People in a destroyed house following Hurricane Matthew in Roche a Bateux, Haiti in October 2016
Blog
Olivia Nielsen Emma Harwood
Rebuilding blind: The global failure to count homes destroyed
Each year, we count the millions of people displaced by disasters and calculate the cost of the destruction. But there’s one number you won’t find in the global databases: how many homes were actually destroyed.
Aerial shot of floods in La Guajira, Colombia
Blog
Cristian Camilo Fernández Lopera
Inclusion of ethnic groups in disaster risk management and financial protection in Colombia
Strengthening coordination, adapting tools to local capacities, and ensuring participatory communication are key to enabling inclusive Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Financial Protection (FP).
Aerial view of east–west corridor highway road near Koshi river in Sariagarh, India
Blog
Sanjay K. Srivastava
Resilience as climate justice: India’s fight against loss and damage
India, a leading voice for climate equity, faces escalating loss and damages. Yet, in September 2024, despite record discharge from the Kosi River in Bihar, infrastructure measures prevented a full-scale flood.