Effects of disaster risk reduction on socio-economic development and poverty reduction

Abstract

Investments in disaster risk reduction not only reduce damage, but also promote social and economic development. While there are many methods of evaluating investments in disaster risk reduction, most methods are based on losses and benefits to the entire region, and the differences in the benefits for different social classes are unclear. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain the impact on the poor, who are particularly severely affected by disasters. Here, we present a method for assessing the impact of disaster risk reduction investments on the poor based on case study data from Bago, Myanmar, including interviews with 440 households. The results show that by considering the development of the poor, the benefits of investment in disaster risk reduction can increase by ∼4.4 times. Although there is uncertainty in modeling such a complex system, the results demonstrate the need to consider both the direct and indirect impacts of disaster risk reduction investments, for facilitating sustainable development in developing countries.