This report presents a strong economic case for investing in disaster and emergency preparedness. Specifically, this report aims to help policymakers identify and prioritize the most urgent and cost-effective opportunities to bolster the country’s resilience, thereby improving preparedness not...

Background: Reverse Logistics (RL) can reduce waste, mitigate environmental impacts, and enhance operational efficiency in Humanitarian Operations (HOs). Nevertheless, it remains weakly institutionalised and insufficiently recognised as a structuring component of Humanitarian Logistics (HL),...

This study examines whether receiving anticipatory cash transfers during an extreme winter affects households’ demand for index-based livestock insurance. We exploit a randomized field experiment conducted during the 2020/21 winter disaster in western Mongolia and combine household panel...

Background: The administration and management of humanitarian logistical operations are considered critical factors. The extreme and unexpected nature of events such as natural disasters poses logistical challenges to humanitarian support agencies providing aid to the affected area. These...

Background: Despite advances in monitoring and forecasting systems, natural disasters continue to cause significant human losses. During the response phase, fast decisions are required to allocate limited resources, particularly rescue helicopters, which play a key role in reaching inaccessible...

Background: Natural disasters can trigger hazardous material (Hazmat) releases and damage valuable assets, increasing human, environmental, and economic losses. Effective predisaster relocation planning is therefore critical but operationally challenging. Methods: This study develops a...

This evaluation assesses the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) support to Tajikistan over 2015-2024. Tajikistan is highly vulnerable to disasters caused by natural hazards and to climate change due to its topography and limited adaptive capacity. GFDRR has approved 13...

Do earthquakes strengthen social cohesion or undermine it? While some theories suggest they strengthen social bonds, others suggest they lead to social disintegration. We add to the limited causal evidence on this phenomenon using the 2012 Northern Italy earthquake, and exploit a unique dataset...

This report provides a comprehensive review of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) financing in India, with the aim of informing the deliberations of the Sixteenth Finance Commission (SFC). India's geographic and climatic diversity makes effective DRM financing critical to safeguarding communities,...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) can help countries facing complex climate-related challenges to address disaster risks while providing important socioeconomic benefits. This guide focuses on NBS for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction (DRR). As such, traditional conservation and...

The reconstruction of Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) in Sint Maarten represents one of the most comprehensive airport disaster recovery efforts in recent history. When Category 5 Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the terminal in September 2017, they threatened the economic...

Ziel des Beitrags ist es, vor dem Hintergrund von immer relevanter werdenden Sicherheitsrisiken den Katastrophenschutz in Grenzregionen genauer zu betrachten. Dabei soll geklärt werden, welche formellen und informellen Rahmenbedingungen auf die Einsatzkräfte im deutsch-französischen Grenzraum...

Disaster risk management (DRM) plays a critical role in protecting livelihoods and economies from the adverse impacts of disaster and climate-related shocks, while enabling inclusive and sustained growth. The frequency and severity of disasters is rising, driven by the combined pressures of...

Social networks are becoming vital for people to interact with each other, which in turn represent the production of a huge amount of information that can be useful in many contexts (e.g., medicine, natural disasters, commercial purposes, tourism). Nevertheless, analyzing such Big Data for...

Food insecurity remains a global challenge that demands efficient and equitable logistical solutions, especially in the distribution of food aid. This study addresses the Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) in foodbank logistics by proposing a novel multi-objective optimization...

Natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods devastate food supply chains and can threaten food security and public health. These disruptions, from production to consumption, lead to shortages, increased waste, and heightened vulnerability among food-insecure populations. This...

This study explores how cities and regions can strengthen their resilience to floods through improved governance, coordination, and investment. It analyses the economic, social and environmental impacts of recent flood events; assesses the effectiveness of existing EU legal and financial...

Developing countries are increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards, which cause extensive human, economic, and infrastructural damage. Between 2000 and 2024, over 7,200 disasters in these countries resulted in 1.25 million deaths, affected more than 4.6 billion people, and caused an estimated...

The Lessons Learned Exercise (LLE) for Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP&R) in Nigeria is a joint initiative between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the World Bank (WB), spanning eighteen Nigerian states. The LLE is a government-led review of existing EP&R arrangements that...

Romania is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the European Union (EU). The national risk assessment (NRA, RO-RISK) identifies earthquakes as the country's top hazard, potentially affecting over half of the country. Romania's capital city, Bucharest, with its dense population and aging...

The Republic of Cyprus (hereafter referred to as 'Cyprus') faces various natural hazards, including earthquakes. According to the National Risk Assessment (NRA) for the Republic of Cyprus, earthquakes pose the second greatest risk of high impact, following wildfires. Based on national and...

Croatia faces significant earthquake risk due to its moderate to high seismic activity and its vulnerable, aging buildings and other infrastructure. Although earthquakes are comparatively rare in Croatia, they nonetheless pose considerable risk. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country...

Croatia faces a complex disaster risk landscape that requires smarter, risk informed planning to strengthen emergency preparedness and climate resilience. The country's seismic vulnerability, diverse geography, and increasing climate related hazards such as floods, wildfires, and landslides pose...

Big data technologies have greatly enhanced the effectiveness of humanitarian logistics. However, most research in this area has focused on developed countries, with limited application to emerging economies. This study aims to address that gap by systematically reviewing global literature to...

The objective of this combined evaluation was to produce an independent evaluation covering the period of 2019-2023 of two key components, namely: the EU's humanitarian interventions in the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean (SAIO) region (Part A), and DG ECHO's WASH policy (Part B). Part A...

Background: This systematic review explores the integration of green practices into humanitarian supply chains to mitigate environmental impacts and contribute to global decarbonization efforts. Methods: This review focused on peer-reviewed articles published between 2011 and 2024 that addressed...

Background: The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in humanitarian logistics is essential for improving coordination and decision making, especially in the challenging landscape of disaster-relief settings. However, the current literature offers limited empirical evidence with respect to...

Disasters have posed significant economic costs to Bangladesh, and financing needs associated with disaster response are estimated to be substantial. Bangladesh has put in place fiscal mechanisms, social protection programs, and financial instruments to respond to natural disasters. While the...

The European Commission, alongside Poland in its role as the current Presidency of the Council of the European Union, jointly hosted the fourth European Humanitarian Forum in Brussels on 19 and 20 May 2025. Gathering more than 2300 participants, the Forum's high-level discussions, political...