Disaster Risk Governance

The issue of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is intimately linked to Governance model used by states to implement a comprehensive strategy to manage such risks and undertake integrated management. Depending on the chosen Governance model, the DRR circle can be either virtuous or vicious.

• Disaster Risk Governance is part of the general governance process which is related to social and developmental advances.
• In 1995, the UN Commission on Global Governance defined governance as “the sum of the different ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs. It includes formal institutions and regimes empowered to enforce compliance, as well as informal arrangements that people and institutions have either agreed to or perceive to be in their interest. Apart from governance, the principles of good governance, i.e., participation, accountability, transparency, equity and effectiveness, are also important to achieve sustainable disaster risk reduction (DRR).
• Disaster Risk Governance is a part of the overall governance process that has been defined by the UNDP as, “the way in which public authorities, civil servants, media, private sector and civil society coordinate at community, regional and national levels in order to manage and reduce disaster and climate-related risks.
• This means ensuring that sufficient levels of capacity and resources are made available to prevent, prepare for, manage and recover from disasters. It also entails mechanisms, institutions and processes for citizens to articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights and obligations and mediate their differences”. Thus, disaster risk governance is a mechanism through which disaster risk management is done.
• In the process of DRG, the state has a prime responsibility to provide safety and security to people. The main aim of DRG is to increase the coping capacity of the citizens. It involves capacity building and increasing the ability of society to overcome the effects of the disaster. It is the state’s responsibility to design policies and provide institutional and financial support directed toward disaster risk reduction. It includes reducing poverty and inequality, bringing development, and establishing a legal and institutional framework for the implementation of disaster risk management. DRG, in general, includes:

• • Making Disaster Risk Management (DRM) a policy priority;
  • Allocating resources for disaster risk reduction;
  • Implementing disaster risk management laws;
  • Developing general and political commitment toward Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR);
  • Promoting multi-stakeholder involvement;
  • Bringing socio-economic changes to promote DRM;
  • Promoting accountability for losses and impact, etc.;
  • Establish an institutional framework to implement DRR programmes;
  • Conduct hazard risk assessment;
  • Integrate DRM with development policies;
  • Encourage research and training on disaster issues;
  • Become prepared for disaster emergency;
  • Arrange an adequate funding mechanism for DRR.

Although there are numerous entities involved in disaster risk governance, the State, as the sovereign holder, maintains jurisdiction over these matters. As a matter of fact, only the State has the authority to engage in economic reforms to give all parties involved in the decision-making process the authority and resources they need to carry out their tasks.