downtoearth-subscribe

Generating multiple resilience dividends from managing unnatural disasters in Asia: opportunities for measurement and policy

Despite solid evidence of the benefits of reducing disaster risk, it remains difficult to motivate investment in disaster risk reduction. International debate emphasizes investments that generate multiple dividends—through reducing loss of life and livelihoods, unlocking development potential, and creating development cobenefits. Focusing on Asia, the authors report multiple dividend evidence using, for example, (i) cost–benefit analyses for evaluating “hard-resilience-type” interventions and (ii) participatory decision support tools including resilience capacity measurement approaches, which measure systemic benefits. The authors emphasize the latter set of tools, which can support participatory decision-making with those at risk and identify interactions between development and disaster risk.