DRR Glossary
From HFA-PEDIA
Glossary of Terms
Benchmark: A standard by which something can be measured or judged, a point of reference for measurement.
Common Country Assessment (CCA): The CCA is a common instrument of the United Nations system to analyse the national development situation and identify
key development issues with a focus on the MD/ MDGs, and other internationally agreed treaty obligations and development goals.
Disaster: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
Disaster risk reduction: The elements including a conceptual framework to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development.
Emergency management: The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, in particularly preparedness, response and rehabilitation.
Early warning system (EWS): A system that links and integrates all elements needed for effective issuance and use of early warnings, including the key elements of prior risk assessment, hazard monitoring, hazard prediction, the preparation and communication of warning messages, and the receipt and proper use of warnings by those at risk. (Note: such integrated, people-centred systems are often more an ideal than a reality.)
Goal: Something worked toward or striven for; the purpose toward which an endeavour is directed; an objective.
Hazard: A potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon or human activity that may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.
Hazard resistant standards: Guidelines for building construction that ensure a minimum level of safety for the occupants, given the forces that natural hazards impose on the area governed by the guidelines.
Indicator: An explicit measure used to determine progress; a signal that reveals progress towards objectives; a means of measuring what actually happens against what has been planned in terms of quality, quantity and timeliness.
Land-use planning: Branch of physical and socio-economic planning that determines the means and assesses the values or limitations of various options in which land is to be utilized, with the corresponding effects on different segments of the population or interests of a community taken into account in resulting decisions.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Eight key goals, supported by all the world’s states and its leading development institutions, which together form a global agenda for development
Mitigation: Structural and non-structural measures undertaken to limit the adverse impact of natural hazards, environmental degradation and technological hazards.
Monitoring: A continuous function, tracking the actual performance or situation against what was planned or expected according to pre-determined standards.
Multi-sectoral disaster risk reduction platform: A nationally-owned and led mechanism—adopting the form of a forum or committee—that serves as advocate for disaster risk reduction at different levels and contributes with both analysis and advice on action through a coordinated and participatory process. A forum to facilitate the interaction of key development players from line ministries, disaster management authorities, academia, civil society and other sectors around the disaster reduction agenda.
National Development Plan: the principle document guiding a country’s development focus and priorities, whose content is reflected in the PRSP, CCA/UNDAF and national MDG report.
National disaster risk reduction policy framework: A framework for national policy on disaster risk reduction provides a well-designed and mutually-reinforcing set of plans and positions by the national government to reduce the risk of disasters, including legislation, planning and resource allocation.
Natural hazards: Natural processes or phenomena occurring in the biosphere that may constitute a damaging event.
Objective: Purpose or goal representing the desired result that a programme or project seeks to achieve.
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PSRPs): Prepared by governments in low-income countries through a participatory process involving domestic stakeholders and external development partners, including the IMF and the World Bank. A PRSP describes the macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs that a country will pursue over several years to promote broad-based growth and reduce poverty, as well as external financing needs and the associated sources of financing.
Preparedness: Activities and measures taken in advance to ensure effective response to the impact of hazards, including the issuance of timely and effective early warnings and the temporary evacuation of people and property from threatened locations.
Prevention: Activities to provide outright avoidance of the adverse impact of hazards and means to minimize related environmental, technological and biological hazards.
Public awareness: The processes of informing the general population, increasing levels of consciousness about risks and how people can act to reduce their exposure to hazards.
Public information: Information, facts and knowledge provided or learned as a result of research or study, available to be disseminated to the public.
Recovery: Decisions and actions taken after a disaster with a view to restoring or improving the pre-disaster living conditions of the stricken community, while encouraging and facilitating necessary adjustments to reduce disaster risk.
Relief / response: The provision of assistance or intervention during or immediately after a disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs of those people affected. It can be of an immediate, short-term, or protracted duration.
Resilience / resilient: The capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed to hazards to adapt, by resisting or changing, in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure.
Risk: The probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human-induced hazards and vulnerable conditions.
Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Target: The specific and intended result to be achieved within an explicit timeframe and against which actual results are compared and assessed.
UNDAF: The United Nations Development Assistance Framework is the common strategic framework for the operational activities of the UN system
at country level (http://www.undg.org).
Vulnerability: The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards.
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The definitions of the terms contained here come from sources including but not limited to:
