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Boosting Disaster Prevention through Innovative Risk Governance

Insights from Austria, France and Switzerland

image of Boosting Disaster Prevention through Innovative Risk Governance

In 2014 the OECD carried out work to take stock of OECD countries' achievements in building resilience to major natural and man-made disasters. The report suggested that albeit significant achievements were made through effective risk prevention and mitigation management, past disasters have revealed persistent vulnerabilities and gaps in risk prevention management across OECD. Based on the findings of this OECD-wide report a cross-country comparative study was undertaken in Austria, France and Switzerland to test the recommendations put forward in specific country contexts. This report summarises the individual and comparative country case study findings. It highlights that the risk prevention policy mix has shifted in favor of organisational measures such as hazard informed land use planning or strengthening the enforcement of risk sensitive regulations. In the meantime, the great need for maintaining the large stock of structural protection measures has been overlooked and vulnerability might increase because of that. The report highlights the need for better policy evaluation to increase the effectiveness of risk prevention measures in the future. The report highlights practices where countries succeeded to make risk prevention a responsibility of the whole of government and the whole of society, by analysing supporting governance and financing arrangements.

English

Boosting resilience through innovative risk governance: the case of Switzerland

This chapter summarises the country case study findings of boosting resilience through innovative risk governance in Switzerland. After providing an overview of the various natural hazards and their relatively high socio-economic impact across Switzerland, the chapter showcases Switzerland’s progress and good practices in disaster risk reduction. The chapter illustrates how Switzerland has developed a forward-looking approach to risk management that is firmly centred on the philosophy that successful risk management requires strong whole-of-society engagement and solid stakeholder coordination mechanisms. Despite the exemplary practices in ensuring multi-stakeholder participation in disaster risk management, the chapter found room to further increase risk awareness for current and future risks to enable continued shared risk financing and successful implementation of the well-developed regulations. Finally, the chapter puts forward recommendations to confront future disaster risk prevention challenges, such as maintaining the stock of protective infrastructure, while ensuring sufficient funding for new investments.

English

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