Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, and Human Security: A Historical Perspective Under the Hyogo Framework and Beyond

Abstract

Disasters affect economic and physical development gains, disrupt the social fabric, and pose challenges at different scales. Occurrence of disasters, number of reported disaster events, loss and damage due to disasters, population affected─all these show increasing trends. This significantly affects human security and enhances development. Asia is an epicenter of urbanization, although majority of the population still live in rural areas and heavily depend on agriculture. Moreover, barring a few, Asian countries still face the myriad challenges of poverty, lack of basic services and health facilities, poor infrastructure, weak governance and inability to deliver, and so on. Climate change is further threatening development aspirations through a series of extreme and slow-onset hydrometeorological events, while geohazards occur in the region regularly. The challenges posed by disasters multiply due to existing inefficiencies and weaknesses of developing countries. The underlying risk factors cannot be reduced unless such weaknesses are targeted. This chapter reviews the progress and challenges in disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation (CCA), and related human security issues during an earlier global framework (the Hyogo Framework for Action) and suggests specific actions for the next global framework (the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction). Recommendations include (1) reducing underlying risk factors for poverty reduction and sustainable development, (2) enhancing the economic viability of risk reduction measures, (3) institutionalizing community-based disaster risk reduction, (4) addressing risk reduction in recovery, and (5) enhancing DRR education to help reduce the underlying risk factors.