This document outlines the integration of disaster risk management (DRM) into the German Agency for Technical Cooperation’s (GTZ) development assistance programs in developing countries. This report begins by stressing the current increase in the frequency and magnitude of disasters, especially in developing countries. It identifies two main reasons for this emerging reality: climate change and rising levels of vulnerability within developing countries. GTZ acknowledges the relation between development and disasters, the latter’s role in halting the former, and the critical function that vulnerability plays in this process. One way of taking active steps towards reducing the risk of disaster involves reducing the social and economic factors that lead to conditions of vulnerability. The report contends that development stakeholders must emphasize efforts to decrease levels of vulnerability if development is to be sustainable. The authors highlight the failure of developing countries to integrate local risk management strategies into national strategies of development. This is the main underlying critique of the document, which serves as a wake-up call to national governments, calling on them to direct their attention to local structures, and the need to strengthen their capacities to prevent and mitigate the impact of disasters. GTZ itself integrates DRM into its various development efforts, including in projects focused on decentralization, rural development, livelihoods, and environmental management. This document identifies many barriers to the effective integration of DRM into development processes. These include the continued perception that disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures are costs rather than investments; that political support for DRM is far greater after the occurrence of a disaster than during periods of stability; that donors tend to act similarly to national governments, preferring reconstruction efforts instead of active prevention; that many communities facing the highest risks are also those most deficient in terms of resources to implement complicated risk reduction mechanisms; and various structural conditions (political, economic, historical), such as land ownership and distribution.
General Risk Management