Disaster risk reduction and sustainable development

Natural disasters are inevitable and no country is immune to disaster, though vulnerability to disaster varies from one country to another. Disaster has been defined by different institutions in different ways. According to the United Nations, disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society. Disasters involve widespread human, material, economic or environmental impacts, which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
Disaster management is defined by the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies as management of resources and responsibilities to deal with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters.
Climate has no territorial boundaries. Due to global warming and climate change, both frequency and intensity of disaster are on the rise in Bangladesh which is a highly populated country with numerous rivers washing its shores. In the past, recent or remote, disasters caused havoc in this country with death toll exceeding hundreds of thousands and damages to crops and properties costing billions. These disasters can not be prevented, but their impact can be largely reduced by using scientific method of correct weather forecast and adequate preparedness. This is why, the existing system of forewarning and disaster mitigation should be updated with new technology.  
The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held at Sendai, Japan from March 14-18), was attended by ministers, delegates, academics, researchers, NGO representatives and the media from member countries. There were knowledge-based deliberations on reducing the risks of disaster. The heads of governments and their representatives finalised a declaration wherein it was mentioned that the member countries shall conduct their disaster management programme through risk reduction activities. The memories of Tsunami in 2011 still haunt the Japanese and to everyone's surprise, the world conference was held in the Japanese city of Sendai that has shown an exemplary performance in tackling disaster and subsequent reconstruction. Sendai was rewarded by the United Nations (UNISDR) as a model city. Consequent upon Tsunami in 2011, Japan is in the process of building itself as more disaster-resistant.      
Deliberations in the conference brought to the fore the reality that no government can manage disasters alone and that a concerted effort of the governments is required to ride out the crisis caused by disasters. In an overpopulated country like Bangladesh, a family-based or a community-based approach may be required to face the challenges of a disaster. In order to attain sustainable development by overcoming disasters through government and non-governmental efforts, a deeper commitment will be required to encourage the private sector and form public-private partnership (PPP).     
As a sequel to earlier conferences, several countries, including Japan, encouraged the private sector as an essential partner for disaster preparedness in their post-2015 agenda. Private sector climbed to the third position in disaster risk reduction (2015-2030) framework in order of priority at Sendai. It is said that both private and public sector investments are essential to uphold the economic, social and cultural tradition of a country. This public-private cooperation will make a country disaster resistant and help it turn around by offering structural and non-structural assistance to resist and reduce risks of disaster.
There have been examples of private assistance in mitigation of disasters. But commercial return from such assistance or investment has not been a subject of analysis. Significant contributions in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were not considered as investment. With disasters being identified as merely natural phenomena, private assistance in times of disasters was always looked upon as charity.   
A lot of assistance was offered by individuals and organisations following the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24, 2013. Banks and financial institutions donated Tk.900 million to the Prime Minister's relief fund and various organisations donated to the funds of BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association), ILO and various news media.  
But all these were done in an isolated manner. An organised effort to bring together all contributions under one platform, as was done by Japan after Tsunami tragedy, was missing in Bangladesh. Elsewhere, the business community invested in disaster management in consultation with the government. Coca-Cola has undertaken a disaster preparedness project in Thailand. Furthermore, other PPP-based assistance programmes such as weather insurance in India, housing insurance in Taiwan, post-Haiwan assistance in livelihood and training programmes in the Philippines contributed significantly to disaster preparedness efforts. Over time, it has become imperative that policy-makers will have to be influenced to treat risk reduction as a nationally important issue. Side by side, concrete programmes need to be taken for strengthening private-public partnership, building ties with private sector organisations across the world, involving the people with disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness, setting up a multi-stakeholder platform to face disaster risks and create awareness about mitigating man made disaster and risk reduction for sustenance of the skill acquired by the government in mitigating disasters.
Partnership for disaster preparedness is required as investment and not as donation. When cell phone companies are publicising disaster warnings for the people and transferring money from one place to another, they make profits. In other words, technology gets a part of the profit. Financial assistance towards disasters is to be evaluated in the light of such reality. It is to be remembered that investment in disaster preparedness is not going to plough back profits overnight, but it will have a far reaching impact on sustainable development.
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