The theory and practice of disaster management today increasingly acknowledges the role of human factors in natural disasters. There is also a discernible shift in the nature of disaster preparedness and mitigation activities. While governments, supported by other actors-international agencies, academia, and non-governmental organizations-play a key role in organizing and funding disaster management programs, the design and implementation of these initiatives include communities as prime actors. This approach has evolved in the last two decades. It is based on the recognition that the socio-economic vulnerability of communities, rather than physical hazard, explains the impact of disasters and that interventions must therefore aim at reducing vulnerability at the community level.

Successive disasters in different parts of the world have demonstrated time and again that the impact of a disaster in terms of life, assets, and potential for recovery is borne disproportionately by developing countries, and within them by the the poorest segments of the society. A community-based approach aims to reduce the socially constructed vulnerability of poor by involving communities as active participants in a disaster program. There is also a broadening consensus that it is cost-effective to train and educate communities about risks they face, provide them access to resources and knowledge, and to develop community-based preparedness and mitigation programs. This approach has emerged as a complement to structural mitigation (dams, dykes, levees, etc.) and even certain types of non-structural mitigation programs (land use, building codes, development regulations, etc.).