This report moves beyond asset and production losses and focuses instead on how natural disasters affect people’s well-being. Here, natural disaster risk and losses are measured using a metric that can capture their overall effects on poor and nonpoor people, even if the economic losses of poor people are small in absolute terms. This metric can be used in the analysis of disaster risk management projects so that investments improve the well-being of all people and are not systematically driven toward wealthier areas and individuals. And this report proposes and uses a consistent framework to assess traditional approaches to reducing disaster risk (such as building dikes or reinforcing building regulations) and strengthening resilience (such as adopting adaptive social safety nets) to help design consistent risk management policies. By examining well-being instead of asset losses, this report provides a deeper (and grimmer) view of natural disasters than does the usual reporting—indeed, this view takes better account of poor people’s vulnerability. This analysis also identifies opportunities for action and policy priorities at the country level.

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