2005 was a year of natural disasters.The impacts of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Hurricanes Katrina and Stan, and the Pakistan earthquake prompted calls for better disaster prevention and preparedness systems. Nature's power renders us impotent, but human actions and omissions are clearly worsening the impacts of disasters in some cases.This is where risk reducing measures must lock in, as the last fifteen years of international disaster risk management show.

People-centred early warning systems empower communities to prepare for and confront the power of natural hazards. However, the efficiency of such systems is to be measured in terms of lives saved and reduction in losses, which is directly related to the execution of an anticipated response by the people and institutions once a warning is issued.This paper addresses traditional views on early warning systems, and what it takes to transform them into efficient, people-centred systems.

The series of dramatic natural events is never ending. 2005 again illustrated that natural disasters are unavoidable. For disaster prevention systems to function properly, investments in raising risk awareness are key.

The tsunami disaster on 26 December 2004 claimed more than 200,000 lives. It triggered an unprecedented outpouring of reconstruction assistance from both private and public donors.The prompt provision of emergency relief averted the threat of epidemics and prevented major movements of refugees out of the affected regions. However,many of the reconstruction measures failed due to poor coordination between the actors involved and the lack of expertise underlying some of the interventions.The reconstruction effort was also very slow to get off the ground.

This synthesis of our findings from an investigation of tenure risk in East, West, and Southern Africa, shows that a majority of tenure disputes are caused by the displacement of local peoples, indicating that companies and investors are not doing enough to understand competing claims to the land they acquire or lease. This failure in diligence is particularly noteworthy given that a majority of the disputes analyzed had materially significant impacts: indeed, a higher proportion of projects in Africa are financially impacted by tenure dispute than any other region in the world. 

This country level analysis addresses land governance in Viet Nam in two ways. First, it summarises what the existing body of knowledge tells us about power and configurations that shape access to and exclusion from land, particularly among smallholders, the rural poor, ethnic minorities and women. Second, it draws upon existing literature and expert assessment to provide a preliminary analysis of the openings for and obstacles to land governance reform afforded by the political economic structures and dynamics in the country.

From the decree: "Considering that the UN document titled “Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons” establishes the general principles governing the treatment of internally displaced persons; Given that Angola is a country with high numbers of internally displaced persons resettling and returning to their areas of origin; Having found it necessary to establish the rules governing the resettlement process under the terms of the provisions of paragraph (f) of Article 112 and Article 113, both of the Constitutional Law, the Government decrees the following"

Introduction: "Since its independence in 1975, and most notably in the last decade, Angola has struggled to create a legal framework adequate to address the complex issues relating to the country’s land. In 2004, the country enacted a new land law1 that sought to strengthen perceived areas of weakness in prior legislation. The new law delineated and expanded a range of land rights available by concession and recognized some measure of traditional land rights.

From the document's preface: "This draft Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) sets out the general principles and policies to be followed in connection with any land acquisition and resultant resettlement which will occur during the implementation of the proposed Irrigation Restoration and Development Project scheduled to commence in 2011.

This is Argentina's national law on expropriation dating back to 1977.

This is USAID's review of Bangladesh's rules and regulations on property rights and resource governance.

Abstract: