EU Member States’ policies and practice: Disaster Risk Reduction in humanitarian assistance and development cooperation

This study compares policies and practice in DRR between eight European Union Member States: Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The selection of Member States represents a broad range in terms of size, geography and history as European donors. NGO representatives, members of the VOICE DRR Working Group completed a questionnaire on their Member State’s policies and programming on DRR enabling comparison of the NGO perception between the approaches taken by different states. This was supported by a desk review of policies, as well as other relevant documentation, leading to the drawing of conclusions and the presentation of recommendations.

The following recommendations arise from the findings:

• EU Member States should ensure that DRR policy and practice follows the commitments made under recent global frameworks. 
• EU Member States should make more effort to make DRR a visible, strategic and integral part of development and humanitarian policies and programming.
• EU Member States policy and programmes should ensure clear focus on vulnerability and risk. 
• EU Member States should increase the funding available for DRR under both humanitarian and development budget lines. 
• EU Member States should set up monitoring mechanisms to allow their progress towards commitments made under international frameworks to be measured. 
• EU Member States should implement their commitment to a multi-stakeholder approach to DRR via engaging in regular dialogue with NGOs and other DRR stakeholders.