Crisis Prevention and Recovery

Prevention and Risk Reduction

Conflict prevention: UNDP helps address the structural causes of violent conflict through development programmes that promote participation, dispute resolution and gender equality. By integrating a conflict sensitive approach, development programmes can ‘facilitate the creation of opportunities and the political, economic and social spaces within which indigenous actors can identify, develop and use the resources necessary to build a peaceful, equitable and just society’ (Secretary General’s Report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict, UN, 2001).

Armed violence prevention: Armed violence can be defined as the use of armed force (usually with weapons) to achieve specific political, social and economic goals. UNDP supports armed violence prevention by focusing on both structural factors (socio-economic inequalities, weak governance systems) and the weapons themselves. UNDP’s support for armed violence reduction focuses on both long- and short-term measures, as part of a broader public security approach.

Natural disaster risk reduction: UNDP supports disaster-prone countries in the development of legislative frameworks, operational systems and coordination mechanisms to ensure the integration of risk reduction into human development. UNDP is also engaged at the local, national, regional and global levels in building capacities for assessing natural disaster risks and for developing appropriate plans and programmes.