Reducing Risks, Saving Lives. Save the Children’s approach to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

Disasters have the biggest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable people, and it is children who bear the brunt. Over the past two decades, the number of natural disasters has doubled. Children’s lives are also threatened by epidemiological disasters, such as the avian influenza pandemic, and technological disasters, such as the recent Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. Whilst natural disasters cannot be prevented, communities can be prepared and made more resilient to these events, and their impacts can be mitigated and moderated through appropriately designed interventions. This document describes Save the Children’s approach to disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), classifying DRR and CCA work into five main categories: (i) preparedness activities, (ii) early warning activities, (iii) mitigation activities, (iv) activities to promote resilience, and (v) activities that support communities’ adaptive capacity to predicted climate change trends; and five areas of focus, including advocacy and policy, institution strengthening, and community. It then presents the role of children in disasters through country examples, and provides some recommendations to donors and governments.