20th ALNAP Meeting (December 2006)

The place of DRR in the cycle of disaster management linking preparedness and recovery represents a perennial challenge for the humanitarian system. Much of what is spent on humanitarian response could, it is argued, be spent to greater effect in terms of saving lives and livelihoods through disaster risk reduction measures. In addition, responses to disasters when they happen would be better in many ways if people were better prepared to manage the necessary responses. And there is a real cycle whereby future risks would be mitigated by incorporating the concept of risk reduction into the recovery efforts that are in fact a large part of what is done under the heading of humanitarian action.