Integrating disaster reduction into development: overcoming the barriers

There are many challenges to mainstreaming natural disaster reduction into development programming. However, a new study concludes that some technical obstacles can be overcome without great difficulty (Charlotte Benson and John Twigg, ‘Measuring Mitigation’. Methodologies for assessing natural hazard risks and the net benefits of mitigation –a scoping study. Geneva: ProVention Consortium, December 2004).

The study shows that many of the standard tools used in designing development projects – such as environmental appraisal, economic appraisal, vulnerability and social analysis, risk assessment and logframe analysis –can be used or easily adapted to assess risks from natural hazards and the potential benefits of mitigation options.

Another key finding is that monitoring and evaluation is still relatively neglected in disaster reduction work. There is also still too much emphasis on assessment of activities and outputs, rather than impacts. Failure at the project planning stage to provide baselines and clarify the structure of a project’s objectives, outcomes, outputs and activities also handicaps evaluation by making it difficult to identify progress and causality.

The full report, synthesis report and policy brief can be downloaded from the project’s web page (www.proventionconsortium.org/projects/methodology_assess.htm); printed copies are available on request by writing to provention@ifrc.org

The project team are now working on guidance notes on specific project and country programme level appraisal and planning tools, together with a more detailed handbook on monitoring and evaluating disaster reduction projects.

For further information, contact John Twigg j.twigg@ucl.ac.u