Embracing the concept of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is important for all actors – public, private and non-governmental. While robust cost/benefit analyses still need to be conducted, professionals in the field of disaster
management argue that the human and economic costs of natural catastrophes will be reduced most effectively by investments in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Such risk-reducing activities may include monitoring and surveillance of natural hazards; attempts to mitigate the impacts of those hazards; and efforts to better prepare exposed communities to respond should the arrival of the hazard turn into a crisis. These activities need to be established as a core aspect of development – and the private sector has a significant opportunity to contribute to that process.

Private sector engagement with these activities simply makes particular sense. This recommendation proposes that businesses have;

1. Greater scope for engagement in DRR than in response and relief

2. Greater opportunity to leverage core business competencies through DRR than through response and relief

3. Greater inclination to engage sustainably with disaster management in a DRR context than through response and relief