The new Department for International Development’s disaster risk reduction policy launched last week by government minister Gareth Thomas will see ten per cent of emergency aid spent on the prevention of future disasters.
The relief and development agency urged that thousands more lives could be saved and the aid funds could stretch further if governments made a greater commitment to help vulnerable communities reduce the risk of disasters and educate people on measures that could save their own lives in the event of a disaster.
"Tearfund has long been working on building a disaster risk reduction element into the heart of development spending and we are delighted government policy now reflects this,” said Tearfund’s Disaster Management Director, Marcus Oxley.
"The real test will be to ensure this forward thinking is effective at community level to ensure the poorest do not continue to suffer from the consequences of unpreparedness. Any development gains fought for over years can be wiped out by a single cataclysmic event and disaster risk reduction measures are a cost-effective way of preventing such losses. Tearfund will be doing all it can to ensure that DfID's new policy is effective on the ground."The 10 per cent of the new DfID disaster response funding will help promote disaster risk reduction in development programmes as well as encourage other donors and partner governments to improve the integration of disaster risk reduction into poverty reduction strategies.
Part of the funding will also be spent on helping developing countries implement disaster risk reduction measures at the community level.
"Disasters make it more difficult to make poverty history and it is always the poorest that suffer the most,” said Thomas.
"Natural disasters will continue to increase in number and intensity because of climate change and there is nothing we can do to stop hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes from striking. But what we can do is help put simple measures in place such as better built houses, schools and hospitals alongside more hi-tec early warning systems to reduce the loss of life.
"The UK government will work with NGOs like Tearfund, the UN and national governments to help ensure countries are better prepared to deal with the devastation caused by natural disasters and better protect their populations.”
