Risk Assessment Toolkit

Risk Assessment Toolkit

Community Disaster Risk Management

The all-hazards risk management approach is important in all emergency preparedness and response action. This builds on the multi-sectoral and whole-of-society approach to ensure the process of developing community capacities is inclusive and non-discriminatory.

While all communities and countries are at risk of being exposed to disasters, disaster risks vary. A risk management approach emphasises risk assessments to guide timely and effective actions, and provide evidence to strategies and policies for better prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

Disaster risks in communities are directly influenced by their exposure to hazards, vulnerabilities, and risk management capacity in all phases of disasters. Risk specific capacities can prevent or mitigate the impact of hazards, reduce exposure, minimize vulnerabilities, and/or strengthen capacity, and effectively minimize the adverse impacts of emergencies in countries or communities.

WHO developed the Strategic Tool for Assessing Risks (STAR) in 2021. This toolkit is comprehensive and easy to use to assess risks to guide actions, inform planning, and provide evidence to strategies and policies for better prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. This is critical for ‘whole-of-society actions’ for emergencies and disasters.

To develop, implement and scale up Health EDRM policies and programmes to increase readiness, it is crucial to estimate disaster risks and their underlying risk factors by assessing:

  1. The severity of hazards to which populations are exposed,
  2. The vulnerability of locations and population groups in communities
  3. Existing local capacities to respond to emergencies

1. Identify hazards

A hazard is a process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption, or environmental degradation. 

The UNDRR/ISC Sendai Hazard Definition and Classification Review Technical Report (2020) includes a common set of 302 hazard information profiles to governments and stakeholders to inform their strategies and actions on risk reduction and management.

2. Identify vulnerable population

Vulnerability refers to the characteristics and circumstances of an individual, community, system or asset, making it susceptible to the impact of a hazard. This is dependent on various risk factors, including:

  • Population demographic: e.g. gender, age, chronic conditions, immunity
  • Social factors: e.g. literacy, unemployment, poverty, income status, poor social network
  • Environmental factors: e.g. unsafe drinking-water, sanitation, food insecurity, unplanned urbanisation, climate change, proximity of mosquito vector breeding sites, and conflict
  • Political factors: e.g. lack of disaster risk management policies and programmes

    Vulnerable populations may have high disaster risk due to driving factors such as areas affected by climate and environmental threats, inadequate essential services (e.g. water and sanitation), and a breakdown of family/community structures and networks.

There are many approaches for assessing vulnerability of populations. Data on disease mortality, morbidity, health risk factors, hazard exposure, and coping capacity can be analysed to identify the most-at-risk populations, disadvantaged or marginalised groups, social-economic status, structural and cultural identity, and geographical condition.

3. Assess local disaster response capacity

Capacity refers to the combination of all the strengths, attributes and resources available within an organization, community or society to manage and reduce disaster risks and strengthen resilience.

Coping capacity is the ability of people, organizations and systems to use available skills and resources for managing adverse conditions, risk or disasters. This requires continued awareness, resources and good management, both in normal times as well as during disasters or adverse conditions. Coping capacities contribute to the reduction of disaster risks. It is important to understand that communities have capacity, and they are often the first responders.

Hospital Safety Index

This tool is widely used by health authorities in all contexts globally. It provides a step-by-step explanation of how to use the Safe Hospitals Checklist, and how the evaluation can be used to obtain a structural and non-structural safety rating, and the emergency and disaster management capacity of the hospital. The results of the evaluation enable a hospital to calculate its own safety index.
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WHO Checklists for Assess vulnerabilities in Health Care Facilities in the Context of Climate Change

This guide provides checklists to assess risks, vulnerabilities and impacts at the level of health care facilities.
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