A paradigm shift in the development sector – from income poverty
to human poverty – has been paralleled in the disaster
management sector by a shift from seeing disasters as extreme
events created by natural forces, to viewing them as
manifestations of unresolved development problems. This has led
to increased emphasis on integration of poverty reduction
programs with other sectoral issues such as environmental
management, gender and public health. However, examples of
systematic long-term integration of such programs with the
disaster management sector are few. Over the past few decades,
there was an exponential increase in human and material losses
from disaster events, though there was no clear evidence that
the frequency of extreme hazard events had increased. This
indicated that the rise in disasters and their consequences was
related to a rise in people’s vulnerability, induced by human-
determined paths of development. An evolution in approaches –
from relief and response to vulnerability analysis to ri