National disaster management authorities

Some countries in South Asia have invested in disaster management and disaster risk reduction, including through establishing a dedicated entity – often known as a national disaster management authority (NDMA) – to manage and respond to disasters. Worldwide, an increasing number of environmentally vulnerable countries have established NDMAs according to the Index for Risk Management (GHA 2015: 88). This review has found, as did a Brookings literature review by Ferris (2014: 6), that there are few published comparative analyses of NDMAs, either on South Asia or worldwide.

In general, this rapid review has found a lack of rigorous independent evaluations of individual NDMAs, their institutional structures and the impact on their performance. Ferris (2014: 8) notes that “given the importance of [NDMAs] in the international disaster response system, this suggests an urgent need for comparative analyses of [NDMAs]”. Due to time constraints, this review focuses on three cases from South Asia: Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. It also includes brief information on Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Through the cases, the review attempts to answer the following questions:

• What are the models of National Disaster Management Authorities (NDMAs) in the South Asia region?
• How are they institutionally configured and what are their roles and responsibilities?
• What are the learning on the institutional establishment of a NDMA?