World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction
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Material Information

Title:
World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction pllenary - main committee: regional reports
Creator:
Cardona, Omar D.
Disaster Risk Reduction Program, Florida International University (DRR/FIU) ( summary contributor )
Publication Date:
Copyright Date:
1994
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Economics ( lcsh )
Risk Management ( lcshac )
Genre:
non-fiction ( marcgt )
conference publication ( marcgt )

Notes

Summary:
Cardona, O.D. (1994). World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction. This is a report about the Inter-American Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, which was held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on March 1994. This report emphasizes the perspective of the Colombian delegation on the vulnerabilities of Third World countries to natural disasters. The Colombian delegation to the conference basically advocates the idea that disaster risk reduction should be looked at from a political economy perspective and “not only as simple facts of nature explained exclusively in a technocratic way” (p. 1). The delegation assumes that “the more serious effect of disasters in the countries of the so-called Third World is not only due to the existence of natural or technological hazards but essentially to their condition of under development” (p. 3). A logical implication of this assumption is that vulnerability is mostly a result of underdevelopment. When it comes to reducing vulnerabilities to natural disasters, Colombia’s view can be summarized as follows: knowledge, monitoring, and analysis of natural hazards are necessary conditions for reducing the impact of disasters, but are not in themselves sufficient. The vulnerability of populations will be reduced by improving their living conditions. The reduction of those vulnerabilities, understood as part of the development process, cannot be achieved at the expense of the environment, which will only accentuate existing vulnerabilities or create new ones. Special emphasis must be given to the increasing vulnerability of urban areas, particularly in developing countries where cities continue to face rapid population growth, along with unplanned and uncontrolled development, and thus increasing numbers of people facing increasing vulnerabilities. A community facing any natural hazard must be aware of such hazard, and must have enough knowledge to live with it. The decentralization model of analysis and decision-making is a necessary condition for the true participation of the community and the local authorities. The international community and the bilateral and multilateral agencies and organizations must support national initiatives (pp. 4-5). This report stresses the provocative argument that development has long been a zero-sum game, in which the gain of some countries (developed countries) is the loss of others (Third World countries). This argument refers to dependency theory, which is very controversial in the field of social sciences. ( English )
Subject:
General Risk Reduction ( English )
Citation/Reference:
Cardona, O.D. (1994). World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction.

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
Rights Management:
Refer to main document/publisher for use rights.
Resource Identifier:
FI13071001

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Aggregations:
Disaster Risk Reduction