Better Laws, Safer Communities? Emerging Themes on How Legislation can Support Disaster Risk Reduction

Today, it is well accepted that our own actions – as individuals, communities and nations – make all the difference between a natural event and a natural disaster. We may not be able to stop the earth from shaking, or storms from striking, but our choices can determine the extent of death and damage they cause.
There is widespread agreement at an official level that legal frameworks are a critical tool for governments to shape those choices – both for themselves and for others. This was recognised by states when they approved the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (HFA) in 2005. HFA’s first priority is to “ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a lo- cal priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation,” notably through “policy, legislative and institutional frameworks for disaster risk reduction.”
Privately, however, some disaster risk reduction (DRR) experts and activists have ex- pressed doubts and disappointment with the legislative route. They argue that the many new laws and policies that have been developed to address DRR seem not to have made the difference they promised – particularly at the community level.