Civil Society Must Push Governments On Risk Reduction

This week I am participating in the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Geneva. Government delegations, UN reps, NGO workers, academics, and others have gathered to assess progress in efforts to reduce the exposure of communities to disasters.   

The news isn’t good.

Risks are increasing everywhere, including in the world’s richest countries. While governments report great progress on DRR policy, there is a growing gap between national government and impact on the ground. Results from a recent survey on DRR, Views from the Frontline 2011, underscore this lack of progress. The survey polled over 20,000 people in 69 countries and found that at a local level, things are actually getting worse, particularly in high-risk countries. 

All the evidence suggests we are heading for a substantial increase in disaster losses by 2015. The lowest scoring indicator in the survey was availability of resources. Communities and local governments are not able to support policies and plans with action, as they lack the resources to implement them.

After a day at the conference, I have heard from civil society representatives from all over the world, including El Salvador, Zambia, Mali and Niger. I am convinced the only way we will successfully limit the impact of disasters on the poor and vulnerable is by assisting them to hold their governments accountable and to demand transparency for the use of resources.  Governments say they have successfully passed laws and instituted risk reduction policies- and yet communities in these same countries report that things are getting worse, that they don’t know what plans their governments have to limit their losses, that they are experiencing more frequent, higher impact disasters.

As humanitarians we must look at how we can support communities in engaging their governments and holding them accountable for the use of resources. If not, we face a future of more frequent disasters that affect many more lives.

By Tracy O’Heir, Senior Program Manager for Disaster Response at InterAction.