Mentors Comment:
The thinking line of the answer would be: Disaster management has evolved a long way from managing events of disaster to managing the risks of disasters. Disaster risk management means that the underlying hazards and vulnerabilities, natural or anthropogenic, are assessed scientifically and necessary measures are taken to prevent the creation of risks.
Discuss the need for it and why we have lacked so far in this regard.
Also mention what should be done by the stakeholders to bring in the culture of Disaster Risk Management.

Answer:
Disaster management has evolved a long way from managing events of disaster to managing the risks of disasters. Disaster risk management means that the underlying hazards and vulnerabilities, natural or anthropogenic, are assessed scientifically and necessary measures are taken to prevent the creation of risks. It also means that existing risks are reduced through a combination of various structural and non- structural measures including innovative mechanisms of risk sharing and risk insurance.

Need for Shift from disaster management to disaster risk management:
• Disaster risk management has assumed critical importance for sustainable development as damage and losses due to disasters are spiraling despite the plethora of measures taken to reduce such losses. As per an estimate of the UN office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) during the past two decades as many as 1.3 million people were killed, 4.4 billion people affected and 2 trillion dollars lost due to disasters.
• India had its share of such damage and losses. The World Bank had estimated that the economic losses due to disasters during the late nineties and early years of this century were close to two percent of the GDP, whereas similar amount was not invested for public health in the country.
• Disaster response is visible with high accountability but and hence everyone is willing to respond. On the other hand, disaster preparedness and risk reduction is Invisible but of high outcomes go unattended.
• Global community have realized with lot many evidences based on success stories that when cyclone Phylin hit, which was kind of repeat story of 1999 cyclone, with almost prevention pays. India too has witnessed such example. In case of super cyclone in Odisha, 1999 we lost more than 13000 lives with huge damage to the property. Whereas, in 2013, similar intensity. But the impact was entirely opposite of 1999. The number of death toll reduced
to just 22.

Steps for Disaster Risk Management:
• Growing global concerns for disaster resilient sustainable development found a new direction and momentum in 2015 when three parallel yet interdependent processes i.e. Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction, SDGs, Paris Climate Agreement converged to define the development agendas for the next one or half decade and beyond.
• Pre-disaster planning for risk reduction, risk mitigation and preparedness are the new rule of business in the sector. And those who believe in it, for them DM is both i.e. pre-disaster risk reduction and post disaster response
• We need knowledge sharing among the larger Disaster Management community and we need a common platform to create a versatile interface among policy makers in the Government and disaster managers at all administrative levels
• At national and local levels, plans should be harmonized to incorporate awareness generation of adopting disaster resilient building byelaws, land use zoning, resource planning, establishment of early warning systems, and technical competence.
• We need to document and learn from our past experiences and to use these to reduce vulnerabilities at regional, national and local levels. According to an UNESCO estimate, today only $4 out of every $100 allocated for humanitarian assistance are spent on risk reduction measures.
• Projects planned for the future in high disaster-prone areas should mandatorily undertake disaster risk audit of the projects. There has to be broader and a more people-centered preventive approach to disaster risk.
• Disaster risk reduction practices need to be inclusive and accessible in order to be efficient and effective. Government should facilitate, incentivize, and engage with relevant stakeholder especially private sector in the design and implementation of policies, plans and standards.

There is a need for engaging women as leader, youth, children, civil society, and academia for making it inclusive. Also, all states should be engaged with scientific and research institutions, to work more closely together and to create opportunities for collaboration and for businesses to integrate disaster risk into their management practices for making SDG achievable.