Natural hazards have the potential to devastate communities and economies around the world. Natural hazards are inevitable, but not natural disasters. When a natural hazard occurs, it is the collective societal resilience that will determine whether that event results in a natural disaster. This century, more than one million people have lost their lives to natural disasters.

Last year alone around 20,000 people were killed or went missing in natural disasters, the majority in storms, floods and other severe weather events. The impact of natural disasters can reverberate long after the event itself—global economic losses due to natural disasters in 2013 amounted to USD 131 billion, which represents almost 2% of GDP. The costs of recovery from these natural disasters—borne by governments, NGOs, business and communities—consume scarce public and private resources which could otherwise be used to develop social, economic and natural capital.

Much of this can be prevented by building disaster-resilient communities and economies. Reducing disaster risk before an event can have a direct impact on how well, and how quickly, communities recover. Across many nations, there is a funding imbalance between investing in pre-disaster resilience and paying the costs of post-disaster relief and recovery. Investment in building up- front resilience and hazard preparedness provides a positive return and reduces the need for recovery.

It is estimated that every dollar spent in disaster risk reduction returns between two and ten dollars in recovery savings. Building resilience to natural hazards requires an awareness of risk, a commitment by all stakeholders to make change happen, and a structured approach to funding and implementing effective measures for disaster risk reduction.