EU Commissioner: The Dutch Experience and Disaster Risk Management

Kristalina Georgieva, the EU Commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, gave a speech on Feb. 10 in Rotterdam on disaster risk management. The full speech is worth a read.  In her remarks, Georgieva relates how the Dutch experience managing disasters can provide an important foundation for understanding and responding to the increasing trend in disasters.

She continues:

Effective management of risks is nothing new. But we are living in an increasingly fragile world where global trends such as climate change, urbanisation, population growth and environmental degradation mean that the frequency and intensity of disasters has risen steadily over recent decades. Getting risk management right has never been more urgent.

The structure of the speech looks at the economic rationale for disaster management, the role of the private sector in developing disaster management policy, and how the European Commission can move the agenda forward.

In addition to the specific policy agenda information, this speech provides an interesting view into how the European Commission is approaching and preparing for a world trending towards more disasters, and a greater need for coordinated disaster risk management policies.