Executive Summary - GFDRR

of life, and sustainable development, starting
from creating regional consensus spaces and
cooperation mechanisms among municipalities,
governments, the CAR, regional entities,
if any, sectors, and other National Government
actors. Likewise, it is in charge of promoting
the creation of policies and sectoral action
plans so that each sphere defines its responsibility
in its infrastructure safety, minimizing
loss of life and the impacts on production
means facing disaster risks, and ensuring the
ongoing rendering of services.
The policy requires the formulation
and implementation of specific strategies
for each of the geological and hydrometeorological
phenomena, considering variables
related to climate change, and prioritizing
the most recurrent phenomena. Last but
perhaps most importantly, this policy should
promote capacity strengthening, complementarity,
and subsidiarity strategies to provide
support to municipalities in territorial risk
management, recognizing that local capacities
are limited (based on availability of economic,
technical, and human resources).
Create a risk management statute to
harmonize the current legislation addressing
the gaps identified in defining public
and private responsibilities. Legal reorganization
is required for all norms related to
disaster risk management, through a specific
statute that would also complement aspects
that are not yet regulated. Defining the processes
in knowledge, risk reduction, and disaster
management is recommended for each
of the different phenomena. Likewise, the actors
who should be involved at the different
territorial levels and their specific roles and
responsibilities should also be included. The
statute should also articulate the different regional
levels to work together according to
their capabilities and resources, thus ensuring
compliance with the principles of competition,
subsidiarity, and complementarity as
established by the Constitution. With regard
to risk materialization situations, it is essential
to explicitly regulate the types of different
situations (emergency, disaster, calamity),
so that the concept of severe public calamity,
as provided in the Constitution, Article 215,
is consistent with the current disaster declaration
(Decree Law 919 of 1989). It is also
necessary to regulate the responsibilities and
instruments of the recovery processes (rehabilitation
and reconstruction). The contact
points between sectoral legislation and disaster
risk issues should be strengthened, and the
participation and involvement of persons in
this management require specific regulations.
Reorganize the System, by strengthening
technical and financial management
capacity at the different territorial levels
and including the participation of the private
sector. A normative and structural transformation
of the System is needed. It should
include its mission, vision, and the objectives
of the State and society actions in facing
risks and disasters 10 , as well as being in
coherence with the Constitution, through an
adequate articulation with the principles and
guidelines contemplated therein. It is necessary
to change the current notion of disaster,
reduce duplication in functions, and establish
mechanisms to ensure a coordinated effort so
that all actors involved have a clear understanding
of the System’s orientation and its contributions
in achieving the proposed objectives.
Local Government Councils should be the basis
of the System and substitute the committees’
formal structure, whose management and
10 As the Act Project proposed, filed In the Congress of the Republic in July
2011 (Ingeniar Ltda., 2011).
24 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. ANALYSIS OF DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT IN COLOMBIA: A contribution TO the creation of public policies