SDC guidelines on disaster risk reduction

This publication deals with the management of disaster risks emanating from natural hazards. In particular, they focus on risks arising from (i) sudden onset disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes; (ii) slow onset disasters like desertification, climate change and deforestation; and (iii) naturally induced technical disasters, e.g. a fire in an oil refinery caused by an earthquake.

The purpose of this publication is to show how SDC is contributing to global efforts to substantially reduce disaster losses in terms of both human life and the social, economic and environmental assets of communities and countries by: (i) reaffirming that disaster risk reduction is a fundamental dimension of a safe life and livelihood and sustainable development, (ii) taking into consideration that many – albeit differently labelled – SDC activities implicitly contribute to disaster risk reduction, (iii) providing guidelines on how to cope systematically with disaster risks emanating from natural hazards and (iv) integrating disaster risk reduction into existing SDC planning and operational processes (mainstreaming).