Compound risks

As hazards increase in frequency and intensity, we can expect there to be not only less time to recover between them, but also multiple hazards happening at once, resulting in compounding risks. Extreme weather events occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the impact of compounding hazards on vulnerable populations. When hazards combine, they can multiply each other’s impact in unprecedented ways, leaving governments, civil society, and the humanitarian sector struggling to respond.

Anticipatory action has mostly taken a single-hazard approach so far and now needs to evolve to better account for multiple hazards, concurrent shocks and compounding risks, as highlighted in the following studies.

This paper argues that compound risks and complex emergencies require new approaches to preparedness and anticipatory action, emphasising that social inequalities heighten the risk and magnitude of compound disasters, severely impacting the very communities that are least equipped to handle them. 

This paper examines adjustments to and activations of Early Action Protocols by the Red Cross Red Crescent in 2020 and evaluates how anticipatory efforts managed multiple compounding risks during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing recommendations on how multi-hazard risk management can be improved.

Header photo by Indian Red Cross Society