Study on disaster risk reduction, decentralization and political economy

This report aims to answer the questions: i) how can decentralisation strengthen disaster risk reduction (DRR), and ii) what obstacles are encountered and how can these be overcome. The evidence in this report is drawn from a global literature review and field research in Colombia, Indonesia, Mozambique and South Africa.

The authors propose a deconcentrated disaster risk reduction and offer recommendations regarding its components: i) incentives, ii) disincentives, iii) capacity building. Regarding the latter one, the report proposes to:

• strengthen current but imperfect systems and institutions;
• not to decentralise down to the lowest possible level;
• take a "layered" approach;
• use academic and civil society organisations.

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