Learning from the past: Analysis of disaster management structures, policies and institutions in Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical analysis of the disaster management structure, policies and institutions in Pakistan between 1947 and 2005. It highlights the contemporary challenges faced in the country related to risk management.

The findings of the study are as follows:

• There is a need for inclusion of local, communal, religious and civil society actors at all stages of the disaster management cycle.
• The aspect of community-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation needs to be built into disaster management policies.
• More research and analysis is needed to explore a holistic-integrative approach to disaster governance with less bureaucracy, efforts to make use of local knowledge, expertise and experiences, and building institutional capacities for DRR, mitigation and management.

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, Volume 25, Issue 4, April 2016  Pages 449-463. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence.