Under the visionary leadership of His Majesty the King, the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) has set the goal of achieving Gross National Happiness through all-round socioeconomic development as a priority national objective. The Government has recognized the importanceof developing a comprehensive disaster risk reduction strategy for minimizing the impact of both natural and man-made catastrophes.
Acknowledging the umbilical cord between development and disasters, the RGOB is in the process of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction concerns in all development activities and in all walks of socio-economic life. It emanates from the conviction that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster risk management is inbuilt into it and informs all aspects of planning and development process. For this, the Royal Government is adopting a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral strategy to ensure that every sector can contribute towards promoting disaster-resilience in accordance with its own mandate, capacity, expertise and strength. Hence, the Framework seeks to ensure that all developmental activities align themselves in a way to reduce the risk of disasters.