Humanitarian exchange, number 63, January 2015: the Typhoon Haiyan response

This edition of Humanitarian Exchange addresses disaster risk reduction in the context of the Typhoon Haiyan, the worst disaster ever to hit the Philippines. It presents lessons from the humanitarian response to the disaster and highlights the important coordination role of the Philippines government in it. Featured articles assess the early warning efforts prior to the typhoon and analyze why such heavy losses were sustained despite significant government investment in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), raising the question of what should be done in order to ensure that if a similar scale faced the country again the impact is less severe and the response more effective. It states that the international community must reinforce and support this ambition by ensuring that mainstream development actors fully embrace sustainable development that takes risk into account in decision-making.