Transforming the relationship between development and disaster risk: insights from a year of research

The document outlines a research initiative to break down barriers between disaster risk reduction (DRR), adaptation, and development. It argues that development processes often create the very risks they seek to mitigate, and proposes a framework based on understanding risk trade-offs, promoting 'equitable resilience' to address social injustice, and implementing adaptive governance. The brief highlights the Sendai Framework as a key opportunity to integrate these transformative practices globally.

• Development and disaster risk are intrinsically linked, as developmental processes largely determine the susceptibility and capacity of people and assets exposed to risk. Consequently, development can create risks—such as destroying mangroves for fish farms or canalizing rivers—while disasters can reverse development gains by years or decades.
• The initiative identifies a typology of trade-offs in development decision-making to diagnose associated risks. These trade-offs center on the distribution of power, the inequity of decision-making processes and outcomes, the balance between current and future demands, and the weighing of various disaster and non-disaster risks.
• Resilience efforts often fail to address root causes of vulnerability and may prioritize technological solutions, such as flood retention walls, that primarily benefit wealthy entities and large businesses. To achieve 'equitable resilience', the research suggests four pathways: recognizing subjectivities, ensuring inclusion and agency, promoting system transformation when well-being is not delivered, and working across different governance scales.
• Transformative governance of development and DRR systems is characterized by four main elements: polycentric and multi-layered institutions, inclusion and collaboration, self-organization and networks, and social learning and system innovation.
• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 provides a strategic window to implement adaptive governance and innovative DRR policies that account for national capacities and priorities, thereby reducing trade-offs between development and risk reduction.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2016). Transforming the relationship between development and disaster risk: insights from a year of research. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI_2016_TDDR_Research_Synthesis_Brief.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Transforming the relationship between development and disaster risk: insights from a year of research. 2016. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI_2016_TDDR_Research_Synthesis_Brief.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Transforming the relationship between development and disaster risk: insights from a year of research |date=2016 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI_2016_TDDR_Research_Synthesis_Brief.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2016transforming, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Transforming the relationship between development and disaster risk: insights from a year of research}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2016}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI_2016_TDDR_Research_Synthesis_Brief.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }