A disaster occurs when a natural event coincides with vulnerable human conditions and with insufficient capacities of the affected community to reduce the adverse impacts of the event. Although natural events cannot be fully avoided, there are effective measures to reduce disaster risks.

They aim at:

• reducing existing risks (reducing vulnerabilities and hazards as well as strengthening coping mechanisms)
• adapting to changing risk factors (e.g. climate change)
• preventing a further increase of risks through risk-conscious development (do no harm principle).

Efforts to reduce disaster risks require an integrated approach, which is based on the risk concept, considers the principles of sustainability and aims at creating multi-stakeholder partnerships. For this purpose, good governance is a prerequisite.

Methodological risk concept

A systematic procedure to deal with risks from natural events on an operational level comprises three steps:

1. A sound risk assessment (What may happen?)
   This includes the analysis of all prevailing hazards and the respective vulnerability as well as the coping mechanisms of the communities concerned.
2. A comprehensive risk evaluation (What risk is acceptable?)
   This is a socio-political process based on livelihood conditions, values, beliefs and experiences.
3. The integral planning of measures (What has to be done?)
   This planning gives equal weight to the measures in the risk cycle.