ABSTRACT
Hazards and disasters present responsible authorities with difficult decisions. Where resources are chronically scarce, as in many African countries, institutions find coping with actual disasters disruptive enough, let alone investing in hazard warning. In countries where drought recurs all too frequently, preparedness for early mitigation of the worst effects is politically important, and can be highly cost effective, but insti tutional resolve tends to weaken when rains are good and drought risk is apparently remote again.
