THE government's commitment to Disaster Risk Reduction has been evident with new approaches in addressing disaster issues including climate change.
Social Welfare and Women's Ministry permanent secretary Govind Sami said this was also evident in how the National Disaster Management office dealt with the floods in the Western Division earlier this year.
"It is a positive reality today as more and more governments are working on risk reduction in the context of development, which is a paradigm shift from disaster management to disaster risk reduction," he said.
"Because development can either reduce or increase people's vulnerability or risks to disasters, there is a greater need to integrate disaster risk assessment into development planning and programs to make development more resilient to natural hazards."
Mr Sami said for a better approach to addressing disaster reduction, it was important to work with the grassroots community.
"This includes identifying disaster risk indicators and early warning systems, analysing the social, political and economic realities of the hazard prone zones."