The frequency of dramatic natural shocks around the world is a reminder that governments and the international community need to do more to prevent and mitigate the human misery and economic costs that result from such calamities. Natural disaster risk management is a multi-sectoral endeavor to mitigate disasters. Social risk management moves the focus away from the disaster to explore how the society manages hazards. In this, safety nets can play a part. Safety nets here refer to income support programs targeted to the neediest (either as a result of ongoing poverty or the effect of the disaster itself) as a preventive measure, and in the recovery and rebuilding phase
not to emergency relief which is a vital first response and a different area of expertise. Such programs can operate through different modalities - cash, kind, public workfare
be targeted more or less broadly, and be implemented by a range of actors.