Building capacity in disaster risk management: lessons learned in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

This document reports on a programme set up to reduce the risk of 'natural' disasters and help communities of the most flood-prone provinces in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to protect themselves, overcoming the effects of disasters, raising awareness of the risk and learning how to prepare at the community level. It presents the many lessons learned in developing a holistic approach covering disaster management planning and organizational preparedness, community preparedness and disaster risk reduction, and disaster response and recovery. It also combines physical (structural) mitigation measures, such as building river embankments, with softer (non-structural) measures, such as early warning, contingency planning, and risk mapping.