Capacity building for disaster risk reduction: Guest editorial

An increasing number of devastating natural disasters have occurred during recent years. Climate change is set to worsen their incidence and impacts even further making the risk of disasters a global concern. The increased extent and intensity of disasters has resulted in higher numbers of mortalities, social problems and economic losses. The growing complexity of disasters in terms of their diversity, magnitude, frequency and uncertainty, requires that even countries previously considered not being at high risk from disasters, have had to re-evaluate and strengthen their risk reduction strategies and capacities. Disaster risk reduction strategies aim to avoid (as in prevention) or limit (as in mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development (UNISDR, 2004).