Evidence from past events in the EastAsia and Pacific Region demonstrates that such criticalinfrastructure as health and educational facilities isheavily exposed to natural disasters. In Myanmar in 2008,Cyclone Nargis damaged or destroyed nearly 75 percent of thehealth facilities and more than half schools in the areaaffected3. Super Typhoon Durian hit the Philippines in 2006and damaged more than half of the schools in five differentcities, costing US$20 million. In this scenario, there is agrowing necessity of preventing natural hazards from havingsuch a devastating impact on critical infrastructure.Enhancing the resilience of schools and hospitals to naturaldisasters is a responsibility of all authorities andstakeholders involved and a priority for the Disaster RiskManagement (DRM) agenda. Not only would lives and propertybe saved, but more effective emergency management will beenabled. In fact, schools and hospitals can serve ascommunity shelters during a disaster or as a place tocoordinate post disaster activities. Considering thecritical role of schools and hospitals, priority should beplaced on identifying and reducing the weaknesses ofexisting facilities and on improving the building standardsfor new construction. While damage and losses associatedwith extreme events may exceed a country's grossdomestic product (GDP), the implementation of mitigationmeasures aimed at improving the resilience of existingfacilities provides a cost-effective preventive solution,generally limited to 4 percent of the initial investment cost.
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