Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme

A Framework for Disaster Risk Management Derived from HFA

The WMO Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme strategic goals are derived from the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA).The following is a simplified schematic of an effective disaster risk management at the national to local levels.

Disaster risk management can be framed under three main areas: Risk Identification, Risk Reduction and Risk Transfer. These should be supported by effective governance (e.g. legislation, policies, planning, legal frameworks, etc), as well as, institutional capacities at national to local levels, supplemented by effective information and knowledge sharing mechanisms among different stakeholders.

Governance & Organizational Coordination

The success of disaster risk management efforts is critically dependent on political commitment manifested through good governance. Good governance includes the adoption and promotion of robust and sound policies, legislation, coordination mechanisms and regulatory frameworks, and the creation of an enabling environment that is characterized by appropriate decision making processes to allow effective participation of stakeholders, complemented by the appropriate allocation of resources.

In some countries, governments have started to integrate disaster risk reduction elements in their Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) and other national development instruments. Disaster risk reduction is also being mainstreamed into Country Common Assessments (CCAs) and United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAFs). In parallel, countries are working to mainstream disaster risk reduction into development planning in sectors and at the local level. These efforts are supported through different international programmes and agencies’ initiatives, such as the UNDP Institutional and Legislative Systems for Disaster Reduction (ILS) Programme and the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).

HFA identifies legislation as a critical component of disaster risk reduction, and calls upon States to “adopt, or modify where necessary, legislation to support disaster risk reduction, including regulations and mechanisms that encourage compliance to codes and that promote incentives for understanding risk reduction and mitigation activities”.

In 2006 the WMO conducted a Capacities Assessment of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services’ capacities in support of disaster risk reduction. Based on this survey, in which 139 countries participated, 81% of the responding countries have some kind of legislation to govern their disaster risk management activities, but they mostly focus on post-disaster response. Within the existing legislation, 55% of the responding countries lack clear legislation or policies on the role of NMHSs, which limits their contribution to disaster risk reduction at the national level.

In some countries various coordination mechanisms are being established to address more effectively the decision process for disaster risk reduction. Examples of such coordination include:

• Governmental Inter-Ministerial Coordination Mechanisms, usually under the head of the government, to coordinate activities of various ministries related to disaster risk reduction;
• National Platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction involving different stakeholders (government institutions, private sector, NGOs, academic and research institutions, communities, etc.);
• Strengthening of the role of the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator for the coordination of disaster risk reduction activities among UN agencies and with governments.

Coordination mechanisms enable better identification of requirements, roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in disaster risk reduction, and often lead to new partnerships to leverage capacities and resources of various agencies towards implementation of HFA. Development of legislation and regulatory frameworks, in many cases, has been instrumental for sustainability and reliability of disaster risk reduction coordination mechanisms.

Risk Identification

Risk identification involves quantification of risk through understanding hazard, vulnerabilities and exposure patterns. This knowledge is essential for development of strategies and measures for reducing the risks.

Risk identification provides the first essential step for development of sound risk management strategies. A fundamental requirement is the availability of historical and real-time, systematic and consistent, observations of hydro-meteorological parameters, complemented with other forecast products providing information on expected patterns of hazards from the next hour to longer time frames. This must be complemented with vulnerability and exposure information, tools and methodologies for hazard analysis, mapping as well as sectoral risk assessment and modeling.

Hazard events are characterized by magnitude, duration, location and timing. Calculating the probability of occurrence of hazard events in terms of these characteristics is the key in understanding fully the hazard component of disaster impacts. These defining characteristics provide a basis for extracting information on hazard frequency and severity from observational datasets. The fundamental requirement is the availability of, and access to, high quality historical meteorological and hydrological data that is provided by the NMHSs. This requires:

• Ongoing, systematic and consistent observations of hazard-relevant hydro-meteorological parameters;
• Quality assurance and proper archiving of the data into temporally and geographically referenced, and consistently catalogued, observational datasets; and
• Ensuring that the data can be located and retrieved by users.

In a recent capacity analysis survey conducted by the World Meteorological Organization, in which 139 countries participated, nearly 90% of the participating countries indicated the need for strengthening: their observing networks; capacity for maintenance of standard hazard databases and metadata; maintenance of sectoral disaster loss data; and, methodologies for risk modeling to support development planning in different economic sectors. Given the pervasive nature of hydro-meteorological hazards and increasing levels of vulnerability, risk identification will requires continuing and renewed commitment to maintaining the observing networks, basic data, and hazard forecasting capacities.

WMO, through its various programmes, is developing guidelines for standardization of hazard monitoring databases, metadata, analysis and mapping. These guidelines are implemented for operational use of NMHSs through various national capacity development projects.

Risk Reduction

Risk reduction involves actions taken to reduce the overall risks associated with disasters. Such actions include short-, medium- and long-term sectoral planning, early warning systems, and emergency preparedness mechanisms.

Sectoral Planning

The economic and social impacts of weather, climate and water continue to grow year to year. Today, up to 30% of developed country’s GDP is sensitive to meteorological, hydrological and climate conditions, while the sensitivity is even higher in developing and least developed countries,

With the increasing risks associated with climate variability and change (as indicated by IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report), the socio-economic system for food, water, shelter, energy, etc could be significantly disrupted. Meteorological, hydrological and climate information underpins better informed decision making and planning for the protection of lives and livelihoods.

For example, NMHSs have the potential capacity to provide, and in some cases do, provide, hazard information such as frequency, magnitude and trends that are required for the development of policy and legislation pertaining to disaster risk reduction such as mainstreaming of hydrometeorological risk assessment infrastructure and urban planning, costal zoning and land use planning.

NMHSs are the primary authoritative source of hydrometeorological data, products and services that provide the basis for informed sectoral planning that insures community resilience to weather climate and water hazards.

Early Warning Systems and Emergency Preparedness

The second priority for action of the HFA stresses the need for “identifying, assessing and monitoring disaster risk and enhancing early warnings” as pre-conditions for natural disaster risk reduction.

Effective early warning systems should include:

1. Strong political commitment from the government, supported by DRR plans, legislation and coordination mechanisms
2. Coordination among national services for sharing of information, data, and issuance of warnings that take vulnerabilities and exposure of elements into account
3. Communication and dissemination system that ensures warnings are received at community levels through clear protocols and procedures that are regularly tested, evaluated and maintained
4. Emergency preparedness, including education to appropriately use weather-, water- and climate-related information and early warnings. This is realized through local to national contingency and/or emergency response plans with clear indication of actions, roles and responsibilities which are regularly updated and practiced through drills and simulation exorcises
5. Feedback mechanisms between national to local governments, national services and the community, to facilitate evaluation and improvement of the warning system

The WMO and NMHSs are key to the availability of well-functioning early warning systems. Such systems should, with a multi-hazard approach, deliver accurate reliable and understandable warnings, in a timely fashion to authorities, emergency operations and the population at risk to enable preventative actions to reduce the impacts of potential disasters.

Risk Transfer

Weather risk management markets enable distribution of the (i) risks associated with extreme weather events (e.g. floods, droughts, earthquakes and tropical cyclones) and (ii) accumulated risks linked to deviation of meteorological conditions from “normal” (e.g. late on-set, warmer or cooler than normal seasons). The World Bank and the World Food Programme are working to facilitate these markets in developing and least developed countries. In December 2007, WMO convened a meeting of experts on the requirements of these markets for hydrometeological data and information.

Knowledge Sharing and Training

By mandate of its Convention, one of the objectives of the WMO is to encourage and support training of its Members to better fulfill their responsibilities for providing meteorological, hydrological and related products, information and services. To achieve this, WMO has established 30 Regional Training Centres around the world providing technical training for management and operation of NMHSs to enhance their abilities to provide better products and services, including services in support of disaster risk reduction operations and decision-making. These centres offer opportunities for customized training in disaster risk reduction.

Through its DRR Programme, WMO is developing a training strategy to provide joint training programmes at NMHS and their partners in areas related to utilization of meteorological, hydrological, and climate information to support risk assessment, sectoral planning, early warning systems and financial risk transfer mechanisms.

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