India’s advocacy of disaster risk management will save lives

In a world where disasters cost the global economy $520 billion every year and push 24 million people into poverty, it has never been more important to move from managing disasters to managing the risks which drive them. These risks include poverty, bad planning, lack of building codes, destruction of protective eco-systems, climate change and population growth in disaster-prone areas. Read oped by Robert Glasser, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.