Before and after HFA: Retrospective view of progress in Disaster Risk Reduction system in Turkey

This paper focuses on changes in the disaster regulatory system and societal pattern in Turkey, and examines the failures with all their facets considering re-adjustments, accomplishments and malfunctioning. The purpose of the paper is to indicate the current situation following Hyogo framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015.

The authors identify positive aspects and challenges in Turkey:

• New regulations added new duties and guidelines for the disaster risk reduction (DRR) as risk mitigation measures and processes to the post-disaster response activities.
• The responsibility of risk mitigation is appointed to local administrative bodies by law, which increases the efficiency of implementations, as local bodies stay close to public and are aware of their problems.
• The major problem is not being able to combine development plans with disaster management plans.
• Turkey seems to have many fragments within its regulatory system with highly similar responsibilities that may lead to confusion among institutions.

This document is an input paper of the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.