What is disaster resilience? How is it determined? Describe various elements of a resilience framework. Also mention the global targets of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030).
Approach · directive: “what / describe / mention”
What it asks · Define disaster resilience, explain what determines it, outline a resilience framework, and list the Sendai targets.
It asks 4 things — answer each
- What is disaster resilience: a clear definition
- How it is determined: exposure, vulnerability, capacity and the indicators used
- Describe the elements of a resilience framework
- Mention the seven global targets of the Sendai Framework 2015–2030
Open with · UNDRR defines resilience as the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from a hazard's effects in a timely and efficient manner.
Cover
- Determinants: hazard exposure, physical and social vulnerability, and coping capacity: income, infrastructure, institutions, social capital.
- Measured through robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity, and indicators of risk, preparedness, recovery time and losses avoided.
- Framework elements follow Sendai's four priorities: understanding risk; risk governance; investment in reduction; preparedness and build back better.
- India: DM Act 2005; the NDMP carries the PM's Ten-Point Agenda (AMCDRR 2016); the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (2019).
- Sendai targets A–D (by 2030): reduce disaster mortality, affected people, economic loss relative to GDP, and damage to critical infrastructure.
- Sendai targets E–G: more national and local DRR strategies (by 2020), more international cooperation, better early warning and risk information.
Close with · Resilience is built before the hazard arrives: Sendai's seven targets must become district outcomes, with every development sector made to imbibe disaster risk management as the Ten-Point Agenda asks.
Add value (verified)
- The Sendai Framework sets seven global targets and four priorities for 2015–2030.UNDRR — What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction? ↗“The Sendai Framework outlines seven global targets and four priorities to be achieved between 2015 and 2030.”
- UNDRR definition of resilience under the Sendai Framework terminology.UNDRR — Sendai Framework Terminology: Resilience ↗“The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.”
- Sendai Priority 4: preparedness for effective response and to Build Back Better in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.UNDRR — What is the Sendai Framework? ↗“Priority 4 Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction”
- Sendai Priority 1: understanding disaster risk in all its dimensions.UNDRR — What is the Sendai Framework? ↗“Priority 1 Understanding disaster risk Disaster risk management should be based on an understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions”
- The PM's Ten-Point Agenda was set out at AMCDRR, New Delhi, November 2016, and incorporated in the National Disaster Management Plan.Department of Science and Technology — Prime Minister's Ten-Point Agenda for DRR (annexure) ↗“The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, enunciated a Ten-Point Agenda in his inaugural speech at the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2016, held in New Delhi during November 2016 (AMCDRR), which has also been incorporated in the NDMP.”
- Ten-Point Agenda: all development sectors must imbibe disaster risk management; risk coverage for all; women's leadership central.Department of Science and Technology — Prime Minister's Ten-Point Agenda for DRR (annexure) ↗“development sectors must imbibe the principles of disaster risk management 2. Risk coverage must include all, starting from poor households to SMEs to multi-national corporations to nation states 3. Women’s leadership and greater involvement should be central to disaster risk management”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2024, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 368words · Minimalist IAS
Disaster resilience, in UNDRR's definition, is the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to 'resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover' from a hazard's effects in a timely and efficient manner, keeping its essential structures and functions. Resilience is thus a property built before the hazard arrives.
How disaster resilience is determined
- Risk factors: hazard exposure, physical and social vulnerability (poor housing, poverty, gender, disability) and coping capacity: income, infrastructure, institutions and social capital.
- System properties: robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity.
- Indicators: risk, preparedness, recovery time and losses avoided, tracked against Sendai's own measures of mortality, people affected, economic loss and infrastructure damage.
Elements of a resilience framework
Resilience framework: Understand risk; Govern risk; Invest in reduction; Prepare and warn; Build back better
- Understanding risk: hazard mapping, vulnerability assessment and open risk data (Sendai Priority 1).
- Risk governance: laws, institutions and accountability from national to local level, as under India's Disaster Management Act 2005.
- Investing in reduction: resilient infrastructure, land-use zoning, building codes, insurance and ecosystem measures such as mangroves.
- Preparedness and recovery: early warning, trained volunteers and drills, then Build Back Better in reconstruction (Sendai Priority 4).
- India's design: the National Disaster Management Plan carries the Prime Minister's Ten-Point Agenda (AMCDRR, November 2016): every development sector must imbibe disaster risk management, risk coverage for all from poor households to nation states, and women's leadership; the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (2019) extends this abroad.
Global targets of the Sendai Framework (2015–2030)
- A: substantially reduce disaster mortality, with the 2020–30 average per 100,000 below that of 2005–15.
- B: reduce the number of people affected.
- C: reduce direct economic loss relative to global GDP.
- D: reduce damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.
- E: increase countries with national and local DRR strategies, by 2020.
- F: enhance international cooperation to developing countries.
- G: increase availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and risk information.
Resilience is measured in lives and livelihoods saved before the next hazard. India's task is to turn Sendai's seven targets into district-level outcomes, making every development sector 'imbibe the principles of disaster risk management', as the Ten-Point Agenda demands, and building infrastructure that survives the next shock.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
