4. Strategies for disaster risk reduction in the health field
To reduce disaster risk in health, the sector should make every effort to ensure implementation of the following strategies:
4.1 Cost-benefit analysis of disaster mitigation in health services
A cost-benefit analysis is one of the available decision-making tools for promoting investment in risk reduction include. This type of analysis is based on the principle of comparing the cost and benefits of an individual project, and judging the project acceptable if the benefit exceeds the cost.
A report prepared by ECLAC calculates that more than US$3.120 billion was lost in the countries of the Americas over a 15-year period as a result of damage to health infrastructure. Estimates of indirect losses are considerably greater, reflecting increased health care costs for the millions of people who remained without health services for prolonged periods.
4.2 Financing mitigation in health
In most countries in the Americas, risk reduction activities are funded by the regular budgets of the various governmental agencies involved, which, although they may not have specific budget categories for risk reduction, do have lines from which they can finance these activities. In the health sector, for example, there are funds for infrastructure and maintenance, as well as income that some establishments generate for themselves and that can be invested to protect health services. Unlike disaster response funds, these development funds can be used to improve the safety of facilities that have not yet been damaged.