Planning and Financial Protection to Survive Disasters

While the occurrence of natural events can not be prevented, there is a possibility to reduce the vulnerability of populations through risk management. The IDB Action Plan for natural disaster risk reduction of 2000 included recommendations in two important areas: (i) planning with the purpose of the identification and reduction of risk by integrating prevention and mitigation measures into development plans and programs and (ii) financial protection, provided by the transferring of risk to others or spreading it in time. This paper deals with both of these aspects.