Living with Risk. A global review of disaster reduction initiatives

Policy frameworks in practice
Asia
Disaster risk management is a concept that is
interpreted differently in various Asian countries.
There is a wide variation among the primary
ministries or national agencies designated
to assume disaster management responsibilities
in different countries. This reflects either the
predominant types of hazards which threaten
individual countries, or else stems from an historical
outlook of what has commonly constituted
disaster management responsibilities.
Until a recent change taking place in 2002, for
almost 50 years the central national authority
for disaster management in India had been
located within the Ministry of Agriculture,
reflecting that country’s historical concerns
with flood, drought or famine. As elsewhere,
until recently, most government institutions
tended to concentrate on the emergency services
associated with post-disaster rescue, relief,
reconstruction and rehabilitation, as well as
maintaining public law and order during times
of crisis.
Policy and public commitment: the foundation of disaster risk reduction
reference to disaster risk reduction in their
national development plans. Over the last
decade, UNDP has supported capacity building
projects for disaster risk management in
over ten Asian countries.
Two additional examples can be cited from
countries in Asia, which together account for
almost a third of the world’s population: India
and China. These countries share many of the
same types of hazards spread over vast land
areas and have adopted approaches for centuries
that have taken risk into account in a
variety of technical endeavours. While both
countries are populated by people with many
different cultural outlooks, each of them has
different structures of government. Tellingly,
they have each demonstrated renewed commitments
in recent years to reorient their national
strategies of disaster management to take
greater account of the benefits to be derived
from disaster risk reduction.
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Concepts of risk management have begun to
take hold in some Asian countries at national
levels. Thailand is poised to revamp its disaster
management system and plans to set up a new
department of disaster management in the
Ministry of Interior from October 2002. Both
Laos and Cambodia have established or reconfigured
their respective national disaster management
offices with encouragement and support
from UNDP and other international
organizations. The Philippines is considering
new legislation to widen the scope of its existing
Office of Civil Defence and the National
Disaster Coordinating Council.
Viet Nam has undertaken a major sustained
effort to formulate a 20 year strategic plan for
disaster risk management. This effort has been
steered largely by in-country expertise and was
reviewed in an international consultation held
in March 2002. Following the establishment of
its Disaster Management Bureau in the renamed
Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief in
1992, the government of Bangladesh is proceeding
to develop and progressively implement
a comprehensive disaster management
program during 2000-2002. Increasingly,
more Asian countries are also including some
Case: India
As the Indian sub-continent is highly vulnerable
to natural and related disasters, with losses
mounting every year, government authorities
in India have recognized the pressing importance
of developing more effective disaster
management policies. At the operational level,
there have been equal concerns to strengthen
related organizational arrangements that can
lessen the widespread impacts of disasters such
as by updating state codes, manuals and disaster
plans on the basis of experience gained and
taking account of technological developments.
Initiatives have been taken to conduct comprehensive
revisions of disaster policies giving
greater attention to reducing risk factors in the
state of Maharashtra following the devastation
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