ABSTRACT
Preparing a strategy or action plan for natural disaster assistance that spells out the real long-term objectives of disaster prevention and mitigation-and includes an assessment of eachcountry's disaster risk-can make postdisaster interventions more effective. Evaluations of the responses to natural disasters show the tradeoffs between focusing on short-term needs and pursuing long-term objectives. Prevention and mitigation now figure more prominently, with the lessons identified here featured in the new directions for natural disasters at the World Bank. Strengthening prevention and mitigation in noncrisis times is essential to reducing the damages of natural disasters, to improving preparedness, and to balancing the tradeoffs over time when reacting to immediate needs after a disaster hits. The World Bank has shifted some of its focus to incorporating disaster prevention into disaster-response projects around the world, as emphasized in the new strategy for natural disasters of 2010-a welcome step.
