Colombia is one of the countries most exposed to natural disasters. Regularly recurring disasters such as floods and landslides cause an estimated USD 200 million in damages on an annual basis. During the 2010/11 ‘La Niña’ phenomenon, damages were as high as USD 6.3 billion. As much as 80 percent of the population is exposed to two or more types of natural hazards, including many of the poorest in society. Decades of armed conflict, unplanned urbanisation, the rise of natural hazards that trigger technological accidents, and a recent flood of migrants all contribute to increasing social vulnerability and a changing risk landscape.

Colombia is exposed to major disaster risks. Its topography and climate make it prone to geological hazards, such as earthquakes and landslides, as well as significant hydro-meteorological risks, including floods and droughts. A majority of the country’s population is prone to one or more natural hazards.

This chapter provides an overview of the key findings of the disaster risk governance of Colombia. It identifies good practices and success factors, as well as persisting bottlenecks towards a disaster risk governance system that supports policy outcomes for sustainable and inclusive development across the country. In addition, this chapter features a list of recommendations to further improve disaster risk governance in Colombia in the future from disaster risk identification and assessment to disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness and response and disaster recovery. The chapter also gives recommendations to further strengthen strategic leadership capacities and whole-of-society engagement in disaster risk governance.

Colombia is exposed to a continuously changing risk landscape. Natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, as well as floods, droughts and storms threaten most of the country. In addition, new emerging risks, such as natech risks, put Colombia’s disaster risk management system to test. A large-scale influx of migrants from the bordering Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela presents new challenges to managing crises and their longer term implications. Other socio- economic factors have contributed to the continuous increase in disaster risk across the country. Years of armed conflict have resulted in internal displacement and contributed to often unplanned urbanisation in hazard-prone areas. Changes in Colombia’s climate are expected to drive disaster risk in the future.

This chapter assesses the ability of Colombia’s risk governance system, anchored in Law 1523/2010, to support policy outcomes for sustainable and inclusive development across the country. Law 1523/2012 is evaluated against its capacity to provide strategic guidance and to anchor disaster risk management in the national policy agenda. It also reviews the framework’s ability to devise clear roles and responsibilities and to convene all relevant actors to co-ordinate national disaster risk management policies and measures under the strategic leadership of a central lead institution. The chapter also assesses transparency and inclusiveness in the policy formulation and implementation process as key elements of good disaster risk governance.

This chapter evaluates Colombia’s progress in identifying and assessing natural hazards and disaster risk across its territory, as well as the consideration of interconnected risks. The chapter reviews the openness and accessibility of disaster risk information, which includes the mechanisms for sharing risk information across governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. Finally, the chapter looks at whether the available information on risks is effectively used to inform disaster risk management decisions.

In this chapter, Colombia’s efforts to reduce existing disaster risks and avoid the creation of new risks are reviewed. The chapter shows that with Law 1523/2012 disaster risk reduction has been placed at the heart of Colombia’s national policy agenda, and it reviews the key steps taken to put the formulated objectives into action. It reviews roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved in the disaster risk reduction process and discusses opportunities for reinforcing Colombia’s disaster risk reduction agenda.

This chapter reviews Colombia’s disaster response capacities under the leadership of a central lead institution, and reviews the effectiveness of co-ordination mechanisms established to mobilise a timely disaster response. The chapter reviews disaster preparedness planning and emergency response capacity across the country. This is includes an evaluation of the effectiveness and coverage of early warning systems, provisions for crisis management exercises and drills and mechanisms for continuous improvement in disaster response.

This chapter gives an overview of Colombia’s disaster recovery and reconstruction process, particularly its ability to avoid the replication of risks in that process. As part of this, the chapter reviews the disaster recovery and reconstruction commitments in place and gives an overview of the disaster risk financing tools available for meeting these commitments in case of a disaster. It pays particular attention to Colombia’s approach to ensuring an efficient use of public resources for disaster recovery and reconstruction purposes.