Disaster and Crisis Governance
The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
In disasters and crises, decisions about warnings, evacuations, emergency powers, resource allocation and recovery belong to specific authorities under law. This page locates the main decision-makers, describes the boundaries between them and explains how The Global Risks Forum (GRF) dialogue supports them without replacing them.
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For decision-rights context, in GRF's situational-awareness reading, the map opens on population density, flood water and active fires, framed on the Caribbean; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
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GeographyFor decision-rights context, in GRF's situational-awareness reading, the map opens on population density, flood water and active fires, framed on the Caribbean; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.
Decision rights in Disaster and Crisis Governance define who decides what in disaster and crisis as well as critical infrastructure: public authorities take statutory decisions, operators and institutions take operational ones, and affected communities, including Indigenous rights holders, hold rights of consent and participation. The platform brings evidence and options to those who decide and takes no decision itself.
Fig.How GCRI, GRF and GRA share one field while the authorities decide. Design, not a record.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
| Decision | Holder |
|---|---|
| Declare an emergency | Head of government or designated authority under law |
| Order evacuation | Authority named in civil protection law |
| Request international assistance | Government |
| Issue an official warning | Designated warning authority |
Decide on protective shutdowns, restoration priorities and continuity measures within their licences and legal obligations.
Decide on their own operations under humanitarian principles and agreements with host governments.
Decide on continuity, workforce safety and supply arrangements, within public instructions.
Decide whether to act on warnings and how to support one another. Indigenous peoples and affected communities hold rights to participate in decisions that affect them.
Boundaries are tested in compound and cascading crises. A cyber incident affecting water treatment involves security, health and utility authorities; a cross-border flood involves several national systems; a long-running crisis can blur the line between emergency powers and ordinary government. Oversight of emergency powers by legislatures, courts and audit bodies is part of the governance system.
International and regional bodies may coordinate assistance but do not replace national authority. Financial instruments that release funds on defined triggers are decided by the parties to them; their market dimension is studied at Disaster Risk Finance at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA).
The platform brings evidence, comparison and structured dialogue to people who hold these decision rights. It does not take decisions, issue recommendations with binding force or speak for any authority. Its value lies in helping decision-makers see how their arrangements compare with others, where boundaries are unclear and what past events suggest, before a crisis forces the question. GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Decision rights matrix | A table showing which body proposes, approves, executes and oversees each decision. |
| Competent authority | The body that a law or regulation designates to exercise a given power or duty, such as a supervisor, a civil protection agency or a ministry; only it can take the decisions the law assigns to it. |
| Free, prior and informed consent | The right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent, without coercion, in advance and with full information, to measures that affect their lands, territories and rights, as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets out. |
| Subsidiarity | The principle that a decision is taken at the lowest level able to take it well, with a higher level acting only where the objective cannot be achieved closer to the people concerned; the Treaty on European Union states it. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.