Strengthening International Disaster Risk Reduction through Collaboration with China

Natural disasters hit developing countries particularly hard. Worldwide, the incidence and intensity of such disasters remain substantial. There were 6,873 natural disasters worldwide between 1994 and 2013, with 1.35 million lives lost (around 68,000 lives on average annually). Some 218 million people were affected by natural disasters on average per annum during this period. China’s history of catastrophic and major natural disasters has led it to reform its disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster response systems. China is opening-up to international dialogue, cooperation and coordination regionally and globally. China’s arrival on the international DRR landscape offers the international community new opportunities for closer policy cooperation with a particular focus on knowledge and skills exchange, international coordination and technical research collaboration.