Blogs

Development professionals often complain about the absence of good-quality data in disaster-prone areas. Technological progress, however, is quickly creating new ways for governments and development agencies to overcome data scarcity.

If governments could apply triage to substandard housing, medical triage would be a much less frequent occurrence – because in the developing world, it is mainly housing that kills people, not disasters. Resilient cities require resilient housing. 

Part 2 of a 3-part series on Bangladesh's progress in Coastal Resilience.

Protecting the poor against natural hazards is a moral, economic, and social imperative. The poor can lose everything to disaster, and not just money.

Usually the first questions after a disaster are “How many people are affected?” and “What’s the damage?” We want to know how many people were affected and the potential impact on the economy.

For many countries, damages and losses related to transport are a significant proportion of the economic impacts of disasters. Recognizing this, GFDRR and the World Bank organized an international knowledge exchange that shared concepts and practices on resilient transport, including systems planning, engineering and design, asset management, and contingency programming.

A severe drought in Somalia risks pushing communities throughout country into famine. Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez and Ayaz Parvez discuss how the World Bank and its partners are working to help.

When it comes to responding to disasters, time is of the essence. And while money is critical to this response, it’s not just about funding. Indeed, funds need to match the event scale, target the right areas and sectors, and smoothly flow to communities in need. But in order for that to happen, sound public policy on risk and frameworks have to be in place.  

Culture is the foundation on which cities are built. Culture injects a sense of place in a city that brings meaning to its people; without culture and people, cities would be no more than a mere collection of buildings and unbuilt areas. Culture plays a critical role during post-conflict and post-disaster reconstruction processes.

The magnitude of threats faced by Bangladesh is unprecedented in terms of risk, exposure and vulnerability. And with a population of 160 million, the country is one of the world’s most disaster prone and vulnerable to tropical cyclones, storm surges, floods, a changing climate and even earthquakes.