Working with communities to prepare for disasters and reduce their impact.
Disaster preparedness refers to measures taken to prepare for and reduce the effects of disasters. That is, to predict and, where possible, prevent disasters, mitigate their impact on vulnerable populations, and respond to and effectively cope with their consequences.
Disaster preparedness provides a platform to design effective, realistic and coordinated planning, reduces duplication of efforts and increase the overall effectiveness of National Societies, household and community members disaster preparedness and response efforts. Disaster preparedness activities embedded with risk reduction measures can prevent disaster situations and also result in saving maximum lives and livelihoods during any disaster situation, enabling the affected population to get back to normalcy within a short time period.
Disaster preparedness is a continuous and integrated process resulting from a wide range of risk reduction activities and resources rather than from a distinct sectoral activity by itself. It requires the contributions of many different areas—ranging from training and logistics, to health care, recovery, livelihood to institutional development.
Reducing risks
Vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA)
Disaster preparedness tools
Recent additions to the resources library
Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systemic efforts. It therefore encompasses a broad range of activities – from ensuring that legislative and policy approaches reflect known hazards, to community-bas …
For the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) the concept of community resilience represents a unique opportunity as this approach in many ways captures the totality of what the IFRC is working to achieve. Although the …
The Road Map to Community Resilience (Road Map) is for National Society staff and volunteers, and IFRC and its operational partners, who want to help communities become safer and stronger. The Road Map provides step-by-step guidance on how to operation …
News stories
Following one of the most devastating hurricane seasons in recent history, a four-year initiative launched to help Caribbean islands prioritize and invest in natural ecosystems.
The Colombian Red Cross Guajira branch has worked in more than 110 indigenous communities, contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of families.
The Global Disaster Law team is pleased to announce some exciting news for our fellow disaster law enthusiasts: the launch of a new online learning module on law and disaster risk reduction! This learning module provides an interactive way to learn abo …
Guatemalan Red Cross, with the support of Norwegian Red Cross, trained 476 people through the “Community Resilience Project” with the aim of increasing their resilience to disasters.