**8. Conclusion**

When placed in the context of sustainable development, disaster management represents an important aspect of socio-economic and national security, therefore facilitating a continuous development process. Disaster reduction policies and measures need to be implemented with a two-fold aim; to increase the resilience to natural hazard while ensuring that development efforts do not increase vulnerability to these hazards.

It is important to emphasize that disaster risk reduction is a proactive approach that needs to be integrated in regular development planning and poverty reduction program at all levels. Policymakers in the development and poverty reduction sector need to recognize that disasters are not just "setbacks" or "roadblocks" to development, but result from the paths that development is pursuing. Thus by changing our planning processes, and incorporating disaster risk assessment in the planning of all new development projects, we can make sure that the future natural hazards will encounter resilient communities that are capable of withstanding their impact and therefore remain mere emergencies rather than disasters. We need to recognize that we can mitigate the impact of disaster and make mitigation the cornerstone of disaster management interventions. We must shift the focus to the most poor and vulnerable sections of our society, and ensure that our interventions are community-based and driven. To do this the extent to which a community disaster risk space is linked with environmental management practices must be recognized and given adequate consideration. For instance, during flood events, a sustainable risk reduction must take note of increased flood that is caused by the conversion of natural landscapes into agricultural areas such that flood mitigation does not jeopardize agricultural practices with an attendant risk of food insecurity. In essence, community participation is required since members of the community are directly affected by the disaster and are the ones who need to take decisions to reduce the risk; it is therefore unlikely that risk reduction will be successful without active involvement of the local community in the critical stages of disaster risk reduction efforts. Thus for sustainable risk reduction during disasters, particularly those that may lead, even if in the short-term, to reduced access to natural and environmental resources, local agreement must be sought and obtained to forestall a misinterpretation of the project intention by the local people for which the project is targeted.
