Strengthening ties: inter-municipal cooperation for disaster risk reduction

Abstract The National Policy of Protection and Civil Defense (Law 12.608/2012) assigns to municipalities many competences in prevention, mitigation, preparation, response and recovery aimed at civil protection and defense. The reality of Brazilian municipalities, especially small size ones, has been living with the lack of financial and human resources to accomplish these responsibilities. This paper investigates the potential of public inter-municipal consortia to reduce vulnerabilities, especially institutional, technical and political, in the context of disaster risk. Several experiences of public consortia in Brazil were investigated through a reflexive study, considering the potential and the challenges for their constitution and maintenance. The political, financial and operational capacity of consortia could support more specialized activities, such as mapping disaster risk areas and contingency plans. In opposition, the consortium is not able to solve all the difficulties faced by the municipalities, and it is necessary to overcome political-party barriers and indifference of local management. After overcoming these challenges, cooperation shows considerable potential to strengthen municipal capacities for reducing disaster risks.