Index of resilience and effectiveness of disaster risk management

Disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate variability and change considering economic, social, and environmental issues are the objectives of integrated, interdisciplinary, and multisectoral disaster risk management. Sustainability and transformation of development are only possible if there is an appropriate strategy of vulnerability reduction and resilience improvement, that is, through governance strengthening and its capacity to anticipate, cope, and recover. The only due to assess resilience is to implement a way for evaluating the performance and effectiveness of disaster risk management. This chapter presents the Disaster Risk Management Index (DRMi). Developed to gauge and benchmark risk management performance, provide a summary of goals and actions to be taken, and promote resilience and safety. The DRMi provides a quantitative measure of the degree and effectiveness of management-supported predefined qualitative targets that risk management efforts should aim to achieve. DRMi has been developed using the fuzzy logic approach by defining four general policies, each of which is described by six hybrid indicators. These policies include risk understanding, risk reduction, disaster management, governance, and financial protection. Also, to demonstrate the application of DRMi nationwide, this chapter presents the results of 26 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean as part of the IDB Risk and Disaster Management Indicators Program. The DRMi is an innovative composite indicator for the measurement of the performance and feasible effectiveness of disaster risk management and, in this manner, the measurement of disaster resilience.