Disaster Reduction and Sustainable Development: Understanding the Links between Vulnerability and Risk to Disasters Related to Development and Environment

Millennium Goal:

“To intensify our collective efforts to reduce the number and effects of natural and man-made disasters.” Placed under section IV. Protecting our common environment

Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration²
Background paper

Disaster Reduction and Sustainable Development:

Understanding the Links between Vulnerability and Risk Related to Development and

Environment

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Content:
Disaster Reduction within the WSSD Process 3

1. 
   Disaster Impact on Development 4
   
2. 
   Need to Reverse Trends of Vulnerability to Natural Hazards 7
   
3. 
   Strategies for Development Policies to Reduce Vulnerability to Disasters 11
   
4. 
   Specific Actions 12
   
5. 
   The Outcomes from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 14
   

Annexes:

Annex 1: Terminology 16

Annex 2: Relevant extracts from the Plan of Implementation of WSSD 19

Annex 3: List of selected “Type 2” Partnerships 24

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1. Can sustainable development, along with the international strategies and instruments aiming at poverty reduction and environmental protection, be successful without taking into account the risk of natural hazards and their impacts? Can the planet afford the increasing costs and losses due to so-called natural disasters? The short answer is, no.

2. Disaster reduction policies and measures need to be implemented to build disaster resilient societies and communities, with a two-fold aim: to reduce the level of risk in societies, while ensuring, on the other hand, that development efforts do not increase the vulnerability to hazards but instead consciously reduce such vulnerability. Disaster and risk reduction is therefore emerging as an important requisite for sustainable development to be included in the follow-up to Agenda 21.
3. The Secretary General, in his report on Strengthening of the United Nations: an agenda for further change,³ paragraph 40, states: “I also believe that we need to be better prepared for natural disasters and incorporate disaster risk management into our poverty reduction, development and environmental strategies.”

Disaster Reduction within the WSSD Process