Evaluation of United Nations Development Programme's Contribution to Disaster Prevention and Recovery

Disasters have been on the rise over the last decade. Their increasing frequency and scale pose mounting economic and humanitarian challenges and necessitate effective management of disaster risk as an integral part of development planning. UNDP has a significant role in disaster management, helping to formulate and implement disaster reduction policies, and support recovery activities in more than 50 countries. Recent efforts to more closely link climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction are highlighted. The evaluation notes uneven progress amongst the UNDP country offices in integrating disaster risk reduction with other UNDP priorities such as poverty reduction, governance and environmental protection. The report emphasizes that addressing social and economic vulnerability requires a comprehensive programming approach, and UNDPs most important role is to assist countries in the development dimensions of the issue, especially risk reduction and vulnerability. The evaluation recommends that UNDP disaster risk reduction strategy should be revised to more directly address adaptation to climate change; and that UNDP administrative procedures should be improved so that they no longer constrain effective programming in natural disasters.