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World Disasters Report 2004

• Facts and Figures
• Chapter summaries

World Disasters Report 2004

The focus of this year’s report, in its 12th year of publication, is on Community Resilience. International media portray disaster-affected communities as helpless victims dependent on outside aid. Yet beyond the headlines, survivors from Bam to New York have saved and supported each other, even when all seems lost. What enables people to survive, adapt and bounce back from crisis? Humanitarian and disaster relief organisations assess needs, hazards and vulnerabilities – but have done little to understand power relations and inequalities, or to analyse the resources available within communities and to build on those strengths. We must prioritise resilience, rather than just reducing vulnerability. For if we cannot understand local capacities and enhance them, we perpetuate the idea that ‘we know best’ and that only ‘risk’ matters. We thereby ignore the most important resource for managing disasters: people’s own strategies to cope and adapt.

Additional information on the report:

News Release
Facts and Figures
Chapter Summaries
Report 2003
Report 2002
Report 2001

Visit the IFRC's website to order the World Disasters Report 2004.

Posted October 28, 2004