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Facing Natural Disasters in a Vulnerable Region: Hurricane Mitch in Central America (Lessons learned)

1100	Huracán Mitch
1100	Facing Natural Disasters in a Vulnerable Region: Hurricane Mitch in Central America (Lessons learned)	- Barahona, Juan Carlos - Doryan, Eduardo - Larraín B., Felipe - Sachs, Jeffrey
Natural disasters in poor countries often cause great social and economic looses. In these countries, the magnitude of the disaster is not only natures' doing, been the result of two relating factors: natural disasters themselves, and the country's economic and social vulnerability to there effects. Hurricane Mitch main lesson for the region was that there is a urging need to add the vulnerability concept to the development process planning in Central America. Responding to this demand, this document develops the concept of an expanded safety net in which social, environmental, economical and productivity factors are contemplated in a general strategy for reducing the region's vulnerability to natural disasters while raising it's competitiveness under the guidance of the sustainable development parameters.
February, 1999	50 Pages