Disaster Risk Reduction Workshop

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.