Published on 14 July 2025

Integrated Disaster Risk Management

Safety from extreme events including slow-onset events is of prime importance for sustainable development and is addressed through an integrated approach, covering all stages of a disaster management cycle (prevention, preparedness, response and recover).

People working on drainage tubes in glacial lake — © SDC / Miguel Morán

Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRM) focuses on safety from extreme events such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, glacier lake outburst floods, heatwaves, droughts, fires, and slow-onset events such as sea level rise or glacial retreat. Some elements of IDRM show potential for synergies with entry points to climate change adaptation, which is largely covered by the thematic priority, “Adaptive and sustainable management of natural resources”. Such synergies need to be exploited where appropriate, for example by strengthening climate services and setting up early warning systems. In addition, working in IDRM may open other interfaces with humanitarian work that are not covered in this working aid, but should be kept in mind.

On IDRM, the SDC promotes a focus on the stages that typically occur before, during and after disasters caused by natural hazards (prevention, preparedness, response management, and recovery). The focus on preparedness and prevention is particularly important given that every USD invested in prevention can save up to 15 USD in post-disaster recovery. This approach has the potential to include new considerations such as the losses and damages discussed under the UNFCCC.

🧺Themes and potential focus areas

Climate and weather services for disaster risk management
Natural hazards and risk assessment
Prevention to avoid future risks and prevent losses through land-use planning
Preparedness to reduce impacts of an event through early warning systems
Emergency response to reduce impacts of a disaster
Recovery to restore activities and services through appropriate reconstruction models
Risk sharing and transfer to absorb risks; micro-insurance
Institutional development, strengthening of national authorities

💡Project examples

Anticipatory Action in the Andes: This project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of Andean countries and communities to cope with risks such as landslides, heavy rainfall, and floods in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. To achieve the project promotes the integration of protocols and mechanisms for anticipatory action into disaster risk management processes at the national and local levels, working in coordination with existing early warning systems.
Contribution to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund of the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme: Switzerland intends to facilitate access to subsidies for the payment of natural disaster insurance for at least an additional 15 African countries. Effective contingency plans provide for insurance payouts of up to USD 5m per event – managed by the African Risk Capacity Group – to allow governments to respond in a timely and effective manner to the needs of their populations in case of disaster.
National Flood Risk Mapping Programme, Jordan: This project supports the development of a national methodology for flood risk assessment ensuring appropriate DRR measures (land use planning, flood protection measures, early warning systems).

Further Projects

👓Further Resources

A session on understanding systemic risk in the age of polycrisis at the GPDRR 2025 in Geneva

24 June 2025

Call for Action to Accelerate the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction at the GPDRR 2025

From 2 to 6 June 2025, Switzerland hosted the 8th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) in Geneva, welcoming more than 3,400 participants from 166 countries.

News Overview

25 November 2025

Bridging themes for greater impact: Enhancing collaboration in times of global crises

Outcomes of an interactive webinar organised on 10 November 2025 by the SDC networks A&FS, Climate Change / DRR / Environment and RésEAU to explore the strengthening of cross-thematic collaboration for better resilience and by exchanging across the GREEN NEXUS of climate, disaster risk reduction, environment, food and water.

24 November 2025

The Blatten disaster and integrated risk management

Looking back at the events in Blatten, this webinar, organised by the CDE network, brought together insights from the scientific community and from the application of integrated risk management to this emergency. The presentation of a case from a less developed country led to a discussion on what good practices and lessons learned could be used in developing countries.

19 February 2022

E-Discussion: Early Warning - Early Action

The DRR Network of SDC conducted an E-Discussion from January 19 to February 9, 2022 on the topic of early warning and early action