Kenny, Charles2012-03-192012-03-192009-01-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/4042Every year, around 60,000 people die worldwide in natural disasters. The majority of the deaths are caused by building collapse in earthquakes, and the great majority occurs in the developing world. This is despite the fact that engineering solutions exist that can almost completely eliminate the risk of such deaths. Why is this? The engineering solutions are both expensive and technically demanding, so that the benefit-cost ratio of such solutions is often unfavorable compared with other interventions designed to save lives in developing countries. Nonetheless, a range of public disaster risk-reduction interventions (including construction activities) are highly cost effective. The fact that such interventions often remain unimplemented or ineffectively executed points to a role for issues of political economy. Building regulations in developing countries appear to have limited impact in many cases, perhaps because of limited capacity and the impact of corruption. Public construction is often of low quality - perhaps for similar reasons. This suggests approaches that emphasize simple and limited disaster risk regulation covering only the most at-risk structures and that (preferably) can be monitored by non-experts. It also suggests a range of transparency and oversight mechanisms for public construction projects.CC BY 3.0 IGOACCESS TO INFORMATIONACCIDENTSAGEDAIDS EPIDEMICBUILDING CODEBUILDING CODESCATASTROPHIC EVENTSCAUSES OF DEATHCHILD HEALTHCHILD MORTALITYCHILD MORTALITY RATECHILD MORTALITY RATESCITIZENSCLIMATE CHANGECOLLAPSED BUILDINGSCONSTRUCTION INDUSTRYCOST EFFECTIVENESSDEATH RATESDEATH TOLLDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT NETWORKDISABILITYDISASTERDISASTER EVENTSDISASTER INSURANCEDISASTER MITIGATIONDISASTER PLANNINGDISASTER PREPAREDNESSDISASTER PREVENTIONDISASTER REDUCTIONDISASTER RELIEFDISASTER RISKDISASTER RISK REDUCTIONDISASTER RISKSDISEASESDISSEMINATIONDOCUMENTSEARLY WARNINGEARLY WARNING SYSTEMSEARTHQUAKEEARTHQUAKESEDUCATED MOTHERSEMERGENCY MANAGEMENTEMERGENCY PREPAREDNESSENVIRONMENTAL HEALTHEVACUATIONEXERCISESFATALITIESFEMALE EDUCATIONFERTILITYFERTILITY RATEFERTILITY RATESFEWER PEOPLEFIRST AIDFLOODFLOOD CONTROLFLOOD DAMAGEFLOOD INSURANCEFLOOD PROTECTIONFLOODEDFLOODINGFLOODSFORMAL EDUCATIONHEALTH EFFECTSHEALTH FACILITIESHEALTH INTERVENTIONSHEALTH OUTCOMESHEALTH RISKHEALTH RISKSHOSPITALSHOUSEHOLD SIZEHUMAN LIFEHURRICANEHURRICANESIMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIONINFORMATION CAMPAIGNSINJURIESINSTITUTIONAL CAPACITYINSURANCEINSURERSINTERNATIONAL AGENCIESINTERVENTIONLACK OF INFORMATIONLACK OF KNOWLEDGELEGAL STATUSLOCAL GOVERNMENTSLOW-INCOME COUNTRIESMALARIAMANDATESMORTALITYMORTALITY REDUCTIONNATIONAL GOVERNMENTNATURAL CATASTROPHESNATURAL DISASTERNATURAL DISASTERSNATURAL HAZARDNATURAL HAZARDSNUMBER OF DEATHSNUTRITIONPHYSICAL DAMAGEPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPRIMARY EDUCATIONPRIMARY SCHOOLPROGRESSPROVISION OF SERVICESPUBLIC HEARINGSPUBLIC SAFETYQUALITY CONTROLRECONSTRUCTIONREGULATORY AGENCIESREGULATORY REGIMERESCUERESPONSE TO DISASTERRICHER COUNTRIESRISK OF DEATHSAFETYSAFETY MEASURESSAVINGSSCHOOL ATTENDANCESCHOOL BUILDINGSSCHOOL CHILDRENSERVICE PROVIDERSSKILLED PROFESSIONALSSKILLED WORKERSSTORMSTORMSSURVIVORSSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTTSUNAMITYPHOONSURBAN DEVELOPMENTURBAN POPULATIONUSE OF RESOURCESVACCINATIONVICTIMSWARWOMANWORKERSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4823