Human Mobility in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

This article looks at how population movements are addressed by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR), and highlights some of the potential implications of the SFDRR on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and mobility management work. The article looks at the operational implications of the SFDRR text and covers issues of including migrants in DRR work; informing urban development about current and future mobility trends; managing relocations, evacuations, and displacement to prevent future risks and reduce existing ones; and preparing for and managing disaster-induced population movements to reduce the direct and indirect impacts of natural hazards. Overall, the references to human mobility within the SFDRR show an evolution in the way the issue is considered within global policy dialogues. Both the potential of population movements to produce risk and their role in strengthening the resilience of people and communities are now clearly recognized. This is an evolution of previously prevailing views of mobility as the consequence of disasters or as a driver of risk. While some implications of the DRR-mobility nexus might still be missing from DRR policy, population movements are now recognized as a key global risk dynamic.