Kasey Channell is Acting Director of the Disaster Response and Mitigation Division of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)
Benjamin Franklin is famous for the adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Today, we are faced with great challenges brought about by increasing population and urbanization, a changing climate, and a demonstrated increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters.
The number of disasters worldwide has increased dramatically in the past 35 years. The International Monetary Fund estimates that damages from disasters are 15 times higher now than they were in the 1950s. Natural hazards—earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and droughts for example—may be inescapable, part of our geology and weather. However, the degree of suffering, lives lost, and economic damage is also directly linked to human interventions, and can be reduced through effective planning and preparedness.
In 2011, the trend of mega-disasters continued, from the triple threat of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident in Japan to the triple threat of famine, war, and drought in the Horn of Africa. We know that prudent measures to improve response, to increase disaster management capacity, and to plan and prepare can have dramatic dividends.
Disaster risk reduction has been a part of USAID’s work for decades. We provide life-saving humanitarian assistance in response to disasters and emergencies, and we strive to do so in ways that better assess the threat of hazards, reduce losses, and ultimately protect and save more people during the next disaster. We have seen, and contributed to, improved disaster response capacity in many places around the world.
However, to continue to tackle these challenges in the face of increasing disaster risks, what has become clear is this: We need more than an ounce of prevention, we need pounds of prevention!
Today, we are launching a new series of short articles that illustrate how disaster risk reduction works and why it is important. I invite you to read the first “Pounds of Prevention” (PDF, 282KB) with a focus on the Philippines. Please visit this site periodically for updates and for key messages about saving lives and livelihoods and the cost-effectiveness of these investments.
2011 was unfortunately a very active year for disasters around the world. Let’s hope 2012 is better.
-Igor Purlantov
I applaud USAID OFDA for continuing to say that DRR is important. Unfortunately, the talk doesn’t translate into action. USAID OFDA allocated only 1% of its FY2010 budget to DRR, according to its own published statistics. Let’s not be fooled. USAID OFDA has been and unfortunately continues to be primarily focused on disaster response, not disaster risk reduction. Look at the language in this blog: “We provide life-saving humanitarian assistance in response to disasters and emergencies, and we strive to do so in ways that better assess the threat of hazards, reduce losses, and ultimately protect and save more people during the next disaster.” If USAID OFDA was truly focused on DRR, they’d be investing more money in prevention before disasters occur. To act after a disaster and then claim you’re focused on risk reduction is ludicrous. By any objective analysis, USAID OFDA has not embraced the prevention adage quoted in the blog.
Thank you very much for your interest in our disaster risk reduction work. We agree that it is vital, which is why we prioritize making smart investments that can help communities today and in the future. USAID, through its Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), has been engaged in disaster risk reduction for nearly 40 years. The amount we can devote to this work varies according to our budget and the magnitude and number of disasters that occur in any given year. This is why it is so important to incorporate disaster risk reduction into as many of our disaster response programs as possible. In FY 2011, OFDA spent 7.6 percent of its budget on stand-alone disaster risk reduction activities. That figure jumps to 30 percent, however, when you add in the amount spent on emergency response programs that also included a disaster risk reduction component.
Kasey Channell, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance
The wisdom of the old is far fetched from today’s wisdom. It is really amazing how wonderful the minds are of our ancestors compared now. Great work USAID. by doing such, you preserve Benjamin Franklin.