Building Regulation for Resilience

Building codes and land use regulatory systems have been largely neglected, to date, in disaster risk reduction strategies for developing countries. Experience has demonstrated the inappropriate transposition of codes and standards from high-income, developed countries to developing countries. Successful mechanisms of risk reduction and hazard adaptation in the developed world have relied in large part on effective and efficient regulation. Regulations have dramatically reduced the incidence of urban conflagration and epidemic disease over the past two centuries. It is now necessary that this collective experience be better understood and appropriately adapted to local conditions and incorporated into sustainable regulatory implementation systems. In March 2015, at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the "Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030" made clear the renewed international consensus on the importance of building and land use regulation for disaster risk reduction. This report will provide an analysis of available evidence to increase international awareness and understanding for the role of effective building code implementation practices within broader disaster risk reduction strategies. Focusing primariliy on practices relevant to low and middle-income countries, it will call for a renewed and internationally coordinated effort in this area. The report will also outline a proposed programmatic approach consistent with the priorities set out in the post-2015 agenda for disaster risk reduction.