Reporting for Devex on the promising progress this week’s 2nd World Reconstruction Conference in Washington, Rolf Rosenkranz argued that local ownership and governance, as well as coordination among public, private and civil society stakeholders, is crucial to the success of any disaster risk reduction or resiliency plan.
Citing the remarks of El Salvador’s secretary for vulnerability issues, Jorge Melendez, he illustrated the efforts to incorporate risk reduction and prevention into the country’s development strategy. "Vulnerabilities need to be identified in order to be able to reduce the associated risk and undertake mitigation measures. Investing in the resilience of infrastructure and communities is more effective. Action needs to take place before the disaster strikes; this means investing in sound development to reduce the consequences of a disaster.”
“We are resilient if there is development. Development, in turn, should generate resilience,” he said as a conclusion.