'If you think that disaster risk reduction (DRR) is an entirely fresh concept, arising only from a world already equipped with technologies telling us where calamity might hit next, it’s because we decide to call it that only recently', writes Faye Gonzalez in an article on Rappler.
According to Gonzalez, DRR existed before we even had a name for it. 'The indigenous ways of mitigating disaster risks are still very much alive, and they teach us that our instincts are not to be ignored. But this does not mean that science is less important. Experience enriches science, and science pinpoints practice in the right direction.'
Faye Gonzalez is the media officer for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO). CODE-NGO is the largest network of civil society organizations in the Philippines, and is active in disaster risk reduction efforts.