The DNA code of risk has two intertwined strands: why vulnerability matters a civil society response to the draft guidelines for disaster risk assessment in Indonesia

This paper recognizes the vital importance of hazard analysis in the national disaster risk management analysis, including stressing the importance of local risk context, and multi-hazard and multi-vulnerability approach. However, it also argues that disaster risk assessment without adequate account of vulnerability assessment will guide Indonesia’s reform processes toward ineffective and unsustainable disaster risk reduction (DRR), moving the country backwards, not forward. In addition, this paper argues that if managed appropriately, disaster risk analysis/assessment may be transformed into a critical learning process for all stakeholders, including communities at risk.