Publication: Natural Disasters : What is the Role for Social Safety Nets?
Date
2011-06
ISSN
Published
2011-06
Author(s)
Clay, Edward
Abstract
The frequency of dramatic natural shocks
around the world is a reminder that governments and the
international community need to do more to prevent and
mitigate the human misery and economic costs that result
from such calamities. Natural disaster risk management is a
multi-sectoral endeavor to mitigate disasters. Social risk
management moves the focus away from the disaster to explore
how the society manages hazards. In this, safety nets can
play a part. Safety nets here refer to income support
programs targeted to the neediest (either as a result of
ongoing poverty or the effect of the disaster itself) as a
preventive measure, and in the recovery and rebuilding
phase; not to emergency relief which is a vital first
response and a different area of expertise. Such programs
can operate through different modalities - cash, kind,
public workfare; be targeted more or less broadly, and be
implemented by a range of actors.
Citation
“Clay, Edward. 2011. Natural Disasters : What is the Role for Social Safety Nets?. Social Safety Nets Primer Notes; No. 32. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/ef40ce80-7c4e-5384-9348-d67721cbdbac License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”