Challenge of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in development initiatives with special reference to Bangladesh

This paper reflects the initiatives taken by Bangladesh in this respect and analyses the policy related issues ahead to achieve an effective streamlining for building capacity through the adoption of appropriate disaster risk reduction strategy. The experiences and challenges facing Bangladesh in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies relevance to other least developed countries and some generalisation attempted on this aspect.

The challenges of mainstreaming DRR in development identified in this paper, are the following:

• Poorly planned and managed urban development, environmental degradation, poverty and inequality and weak governance mechanisms continue to drive rapidly-increasing loss and damage associated with extensive risk.
• There is a clear lack of research on disaster estimates in developing countries and there is a big gap between the costs of rural and urban areas and thus the estimation is very problematic.
• Lack of coordination among agencies and among the government departments hampers quick response in times of emergency.
• The role of each agency should be clearly defined. Confusion about the jurisdiction of work destroys the congenial atmosphere.
• There is a huge lacking in grant monitoring system.
• The foreign grants are not monitored to ensure proper allocation of fund.
• Incorporation and integration of traditional knowledge in long-term sustainability are very poorly emphasised.

This document is an input paper of the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.