The Averted Disaster Award: recognizing successful initiatives in disaster risk management

The media often highlights the disasters caused by natural hazards, which claim thousands of lives, destroy communities around the world, and cost the global economy billions of dollars. But it doesn’t focus on the buildings that stay standing due to earthquake-resistant building codes, the wildfires avoided due to effective forest management, or the lives saved thanks to timely evacuations.

Without this work by disaster risk professionals and organizations, this destruction could be much, much worse. Yet this creates a challenge for the field of disaster risk management: its failures are catastrophic while its successes go unnoticed. This can lead policy-makers and society at large to undervalue the importance of proactive intervention.

The Averted Disaster Award is the world’s first prize for successful disaster mitigation interventions – those which go unnoticed precisely because of their success. The award aims to shed light on successes in disaster risk management and recognize the outstanding work of those who invest in measures that keep people safe. It highlights the proactive interventions implemented around the world that help ensure that communities continue to function, thrive and recover quickly in the face of disaster risk.

The award is open to submissions from individuals, project teams and organizations of all sizes, and from all regions and industries. The nominator does not need to have been directly involved in the intervention. Submissions will close on 15 April 2022 and can be in any structure or format (e.g., narrative text, video, slides), although the written portion is limited to a maximum of five pages.

The individual, team or organization that submits the winning case will receive up to three stipends of 3,000 US dollars and complimentary tickets for up to three people to attend ‘Understanding Risk 2022’ in Brazil, 28 November to 2 December 2022, where the award ceremony will be held. The intervention highlighted in the winning application will be featured in a documentary at the event.