This report’s key argument is that effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) is not simply a technical challenge. It reflects the need to generate necessary political incentives to make DRR a priority issue. It addresses the central question of “what are the critical drivers that explain the uptake of disaster risk reduction policies, and how can national and international participants work to strengthen them?” The question is approached using a political economy analysis to examine the incentives, interests, institutions and power relations facing key stakeholders. The report draws on many examples including four country case studies (Colombia, Indonesia, Mozambique and South Africa) to illustrate various factors that either enable or obstruct progress in DRR.

This report sets out to develop an analytical framework for understanding how political and economic variables affect incentives for effective disaster risk  reduction.  It also explores operational implications for development agencies and international organizations of implementing DRR programming. These include the importance of linking programming to an in-depth country analysis, identifying the right entry points for action, selecting suitable financing instruments, taking timing issues into account, and being aware of the incentives created by the agencies’ politics and their ways of working.