In the run-up to the launch of an important U.N. report on changing trends in global disaster risk, AlertNet invited readers to ask questions directly to the United Nation's top official on disaster risk reduction, Margareta Wahlstrom.

Here are her answers.

How should NGOs best respond to the humanitarian consequences of climate change? Avril Benoit via Twitter

Every NGO and member of civil society has a unique role to play to help people dealing with the humanitarian impacts of disasters as it is individuals and their communities who are most affected by climate change.

There is a rapidly increasing body of studies - including ISDR's first Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction: Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate: Invest today for a Safer Tomorrow - that provide guidance on the emerging patterns of disaster risk, what types of impact, on whom and the type of action recommended.

NGOs will find such documentation useful for guiding their deployments, advocacy and resource allocation.

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Should the U.N. set up an International Emergency Deployment force to help the world cope with major natural disasters? Muthyavan via blog post

The "Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters" (HFA), which was adopted by 168 countries four months after the tsunami in 2005, encourages countries to work together at the international, regional and national level to reduce considerably the impacts of disasters before 2015. It recommends sharing experience and knowledge between countries that are more advanced on disaster risk reduction. This expertise can help many vulnerable countries to be better protected.

The HFA also provides a five-goal plan of action for what must be done to improve the safety from and resilience to hazards and disasters. Natural hazards become disasters because of people, how we build and create our societies and our lifestyle. Goal number five in the HFA is in fact about improving disaster preparedness and more adequate and timely disaster response.

It is correct that because of the mismatch between response capacity at the country and international levels, there are not enough resources to provide relief to all disaster-affected people and communities. Given the scope of this challenge, the best plan centres on strengthening national capacity for response together with capacity for regional cooperation in disaster response - and importantly, to look at how we can further reinforce the international mechanisms for response.

The U.N. already has some capacity - the U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination team, for example, which builds on countries' existing capacity - but faced with the rapid increase of disaster events globally, there is a need and interest in increasing this capability.

ISDR can advocate and promote this need for more capacity, but, critically, will be looking to its partners in the U.N. and regional organisations as well as civil society to take the lead in strengthening this capacity.

In fact, a recent estimate indicates that global disaster relief capacity can at any one time assist a maximum of 100 million people. Significantly, these estimates also say that 300 million people would potentially soon need assistance.

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What can the U.N. do to help the public understand the interconnectedness of climate change and poverty? E. Sutcliffe via blog post

We are concerned about climate change for many reasons but topping the list are the human consequences and the direct impact on poor people and impoverished nations. The two challenges are interconnected and the findings of the Global Assessment Report carefully lays out the evidence for how disasters threaten livelihoods, how increases in disasters undermine lives and how climate change impact magnifies disaster.

The report is the first of its kind to give strong evidence of how disasters are both a cause and a consequence of poverty. Even armed with this knowledge, it will take some time to change the popular mindset, but we hope the report's many realities will finally jolt the decision makers and governments charged with making the necessary changes to address the two problems in a more coherent manner.

This landmark report - and others from NGOs like Oxfam, Care International and Save the Children - enables us to demonstrate that the children whose future our donors want to safeguard will entirely depend on the decisions taken on reducing the risks that directly and rapidly affect the poorest people and countries.

Increased extreme events associated with climate change will exacerbate poverty and hit the most vulnerable, which is why the need for more urgent action is obvious. The main message of the report - invest today for a safer tomorrow - was chosen precisely because climate change together with three key "risk drivers" (vulnerable livelihoods, unplanned urbanisation and ecosystem decline) lie at the heart of the disaster risk reduction imperative faced by everyone on earth.

Other disaster drivers will make things worse and more action needs to be taken to achieve sustainable integration of disaster risk reduction policies into all the poverty reduction and climate change adaptation programmes.

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How will the U.N. make sure vulnerable indigenous communities are included in disaster preparedness and risk management plans? Megh R Rai, member patron, Kirat Rai Yayokkha Association of the Rai, an indigenous people from eastern Nepal, via blog post

I am very pleased that you asked this question! Broadly speaking, the U.N. adopts a human-rights based approach in all its work to ensure that the needs of the marginalised and most vulnerable are not ignored. We would like to suggest that local initiatives should also integrate risk reduction approaches to planning and investment.

The most effective way of ensuring risk reduction is if the community and local authority leaders who are in charge of planning and local resources adopt a risk reduction approach. Partner organisations - if relevant - must perform likewise.

The Hyogo Framework for Action - the overall guiding instrument for disaster risk reduction - does in fact also highlight the special knowledge and needs of indigenous people. There are many worthwhile initiatives where the U.N. is working with these groups to build resilience in the face of climate risks, which are summarised in the ISDR publication "Indigenous Knowledge and Disaster Risk Reduction". This document encapsulates how ISDR partners have been bringing indigenous perspectives into the work of disaster risk reduction. You can find this and many other relevant publications on www.preventionweb.net.

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Would you agree we need a totally different approach to the way we tackle disasters since there are new pressures on governments and aid agencies to be more accountable? Rosa Manson via blog post

I fully agree and this is part of the main conclusions of the Global Assessment Report: Relief organisations and their development counterparts need to work better together to integrate disaster risk reduction into their programmes and policies. If disaster risk reduction is not fully integrated in poverty reduction, planning and development programmes and policies, we will not succeed in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the five priorities of the HFA.

At the moment there are too many development and planning programmes that do not integrate disaster risk reduction. If we do not change the way we act, we will not manage to reduce the impact of disasters in our societies. Investing in disaster risk reduction is the only way to save money and save lives.

Rather than an expense, investing in poverty and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation should be seen as an investment in building a more secure, stable, sustainable and equitable future. Using advances in technology helps us to find solutions but the bottom line is that people and their decision makers must appreciate the choice we have on the range of action we can take today - to avoid and to reduce the disaster impact of tomorrow.

Future generations may find their options far more limited. Knowledge, information and technology are all important ingredients but the most significant change is one of human behaviour and acceptance that our short term decisions have in this case some irreversible long term consequences.

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Will you be promoting disaster risk reduction as a tool for countries to adapt to the effects of climate change at meetings of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this year? Sasja Kamil from Cordaid Netherlands, via blog post

ISDR has been actively promoting this message at the UNFCCC meetings. We have prepared submissions to parties (all available online at the www.unfccc.int), carried out press briefings and technical reports and have been regularly assisting parties by "recruiting" national disaster risk reduction experts to join national delegations in the negotiations. We plan to continue in this vein, and as always we work closely with ISDR partners to build momentum.

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How can we square the circle between top-down, government-led disaster risk reduction plans and the necessary bottom-up changes at the local community level? Marcus Oxley Chairman, Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction, via blog post

Strengthening local governance structures and capacities, prioritising investments for risk reduction for the local level, and mobilising more effective partnerships at the local level are essential measures for achieving reduced risk and poverty in the context of a changing climate.

The Hyogo Framework for Action was adopted just five years ago and already some progress is noted, particularly on disaster preparedness, response, early warning systems and the like. But the main areas of public awareness and education, addressing the underlying risk factors will require a considerable increase in effort and attention.

Areas that need particular application include the strengthening of local authorities' capacity and resources to lead risk reduction work and for civil society organisations generally to build robust partnerships that deliver stronger and more resilient communities. This requires a very focused approach.

Further, immediately following the Second Session of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, taking place next month in Geneva, ISDR will start work on a mid-term review of the HFA implementation and progress. This process will provide an opportunity not only for review of progress and constraints to date, but more importantly to focus attention on the next five years of work. This is the chance to look specifically at areas where risk and adaptation really play out.

To address the area of critical awareness raising, I believe we need to form a strong cooperative campaign between U.N. organisations, civil society organisations, broadcasting organisations and countries to ensure that correct and consistent information and facts are shared and disseminated at all levels of countries. I am pleased to say that some initiatives are already underway.

Resource mobilisation for at risk communities is integral - both nationally through the regular budgeting process and for international assistance over official development assistance - as part of a much improved understanding by donors and users of donor funds that development investments must be risk-proofed structurally, including climate impact.

Civil society is indeed in many places a vastly underused resource. Accordingly, we encourage intensification of the cooperation between governments, local authorities as well as between multilateral organisations and NGOs in order for each one to take their responsibility in building a safer future.

To ensure that risk is markedly reduced for vulnerable communities in the coming years, it will be extremely important to consider communities at risk as active stakeholders rather than as beneficiaries or recipients of assistance through projects or programme.

Communities are at the frontline, and it has been shown, for example, that where they have led efforts with government counterparts, success has been achieved. National and local governance structures, resources and partnerships are increasingly aligning efforts in this regard. This alignment will be critical if we are to make any substantive progress in reducing disaster risk at the frontlines.

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Three related questions. Could disaster risk reduction (DRR) render climate change adaptation discourse null and void? Do the DRR and climate change discourses compliment or compete with one another? And could globally conceived approaches to DRR actually create vulnerability and increase risk when implemented at the local level? Michael Edwards, via blog post

These are very interesting questions. Whether you are talking about the discourse or the practice, disaster risk reduction is an essential element of climate change adaptation; we cannot adequately adapt to climate change without reducing disaster risk. In short, these two imperatives are complementary - as the Global Assessment Report makes clear. The two discourses cannot be competitive; they must be closely integrated.

Your third question is interesting and valid. Globally designed approaches in any topic must always meet the test of the reality at local level. Risk reduction as an integrated approach has met this reality many times already. Disaster risk reduction is not prescriptive as an approach and, at times this makes it complicated to communicate in a clear manner. But the starting point is always a local, national risk assessment - and understanding the issues that emerge from the exercise and gauging precisely potential consequences of any action taken is essential.

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How can NGOs and other players collaborate more closely with the U.N. to mainstream disaster risk reduction? Andrea Z, via blog post

The ISDR partnership already works with NGOs internationally and nationally and many NGOs are part of the various thematic areas of ISDR. We can certainly do much more than a traditional partnership - in concerted public awareness and public education campaigns, as you rightly suggest. These are of course most effective in national and local contexts but internationally they can also be a forceful support to national efforts.

The Global Assessment Report highlights a number of key policy areas that require serious attention if disaster risk is to be sustainably reduced: for example, managing urban growth in a manner that does not lead to the unregulated expansion of informal squatter settlements or protecting ecosystems that perform valuable services like regulating flooding.

The report also provides many examples of how countries have made policy or governance innovations to address these problems, which in turn offer practical guidance to policy makers and the international community. It should be emphasised, however, that there are of course no "one-size-fits-all" solutions.

Governments, U.N. agencies, NGOs and so on are encouraged to draw out the main actions from the report and customise according to the specific conditions of their own countries - and remember too that implementing disaster risk reduction initiatives without fully incorporating climate change adaptation measures is more or less akin to pouring water into a bucket full of holes.

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How will the U.N. increase the use of mobile phone technology in disaster response? Tech4Dev via Twitter

The U.N. is constantly examining new communications methods and networks for improving disaster mitigation, particularly at the community level. Mobile phone technology certainly has a part to play and could be instrumental in saving lives ahead of the onset of a weather-related hazard.

Expanding the use of such technology remains very much a work in progress. There are, for example, collaborative pilot projects to ensure that farmers and agriculturalists obtain weather data via cell phones. Similarly, cell phones can play an even more significant role in early warning systems.

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