Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean Region : GFDRR Country Notes
Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LCR) is exposed to a wide variety of natural hazards including earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, landslides, etc., many of which are regularly aggravated by the recurrent...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/826811468010903390/Disaster-risk-management-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean-Region-GFDRR-country-notes http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27336 |
| Summary: | Latin America and the Caribbean Region
(LCR) is exposed to a wide variety of natural hazards
including earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, extreme
temperatures, droughts, floods, landslides, etc., many of
which are regularly aggravated by the recurrent El Nino and
ENSO phenomenon. The global trend toward increasing climate
variability is likely to exacerbate many of these hazards.
The World Bank Natural Disaster Hotspots study (Dilley et
al. 2005) indicates that seven among the world's top 15
countries exposed to three or more hazards are located in
LCR.Similarly, 15 among the world's top 60
countries exposed to two or more hazards are LCR countries.
The Latin American and Caribbean governments have long
recognized the need to address disaster risk, and their
efforts 'to develop the tools to effectively mainstream
disaster risk management into development activities'
(ibid., p. 1) have evolved over the last few decades. Since
the mid-20th century, most of the countries in the region
were working to address disasters through their respective
civil protection agencies. Just like elsewhere in the world,
efforts focused on ex-post response and recovery needs.
While these efforts are undeniably important, they are
increasingly proving to be insufficient. Over the last
decade, governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental,
and development organizations have gradually shifted the
focus of their efforts towards ex-ante approaches to
disaster risk management, with a special focus on disaster
risk reduction via reducing vulnerability, capacity
building, better information, and institutional strengthening. |
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