"The nature doesn‘t know catastrophes, only men know catastrophes, as far as having survived them."

(Max Frisch, writer and philosopher)

There has been a large increase in the number and scale of natural disasters in recent years, claiming over 100,000 lives worldwide in 2005 alone, with damage to property amounting to over US$ 210 billion.

Natural disasters have the most devastating effect in developing countries. About two-thirds of German development cooperation partner countries are exposed to high disaster risk. Poor countries lack the resources to protect themselves against extreme natural events. Conversely, by destroying houses, infrastructure and people's livelihoods, natural events cause even greater poverty. So disasters not only disrupt development; they also set it back by years.

However, disasters are avoidable! Through disaster risk management lives can be saved and damage and loss can be prevented, which makes it vital for sustainable and stable development. It encompasses three fields of activity: disaster risk analysis, prevention/ mitigation and preparedness.

GTZ has been implementing corresponding development measures since 1997.

Supported by GTZ, the Indonesian Ministry of Education, for example, has incorporated disaster risk management measures into primary school curricula. Children and their families put this know-how to use in an earthquake in Yogyakarta in May 2006, which kept the number of victims well under that recorded in similar disasters.