Purpose – We discuss the microeconomic pros and cons of bankloan-backed securities and credit default swaps, that is, the passing on of bank loans or their default risk from originator to the general investor. By ‘micro’ we mean that our focus is on comparative advantages for banks versus...

Stories of disasters in Africa conjure up images of the helpless hordes, in peril and in need of outside assistance. Most of the major disasters in Africa since the 1970s have a significant food crisis and famine component. These could be linked to failed states and complex emergencies such as...

In creating a response to tropical storms Stan (October, 2005) and Dolly (May, 2008), the Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) began encouraging the Guatemalan residents to get involved with disaster planning. Other international organizations are, also, beginning to finance...

Community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) has been recognized since the mid-1990s. However, in the changing environment of the new millennium and the move toward disaster risk reduction (DRR), the community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) has been evolving in recent years. In...

Timor-Leste is a small, island country situated between South East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific, where it shares a unique mix of climates from all three neighboring regions ( Kirono, 2010 ). The country achieved independence in 2002 having suffered over 400 years of colonialism and foreign...

Disasters being common in Indian cities, communities have created and utilized their own coping mechanism to deal with such situations and strengthen their resilience by adopting methods to adjust to the risk situation. For example, during the Mumbai Floods in 2005, slum communities, with the...

According to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) (2008) , Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country to natural hazards and disasters due to its geography, high population density, and poverty. The country is exposed to a variety of recurring natural hazards such as floods, cyclones,...

Education has been there for ages. Need of education for sustainable development is stated in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 (1992) as follows:Education, including formal education, public awareness and training, should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their...