The case for the need to encourage private sector investment in enhancing disaster resilience in the built environment

![CDATA[Increasing investments in disaster risk reduction have led to a noticeable reduction in human casualties from disasters but economic loss is still on the increase. These losses are usually caused by property damage, job loss, service and business disruption among others. The importance of the resilience of the built environment in the overall resilience agenda cannot be overemphasized. While continuity is a key concern after a disaster most governments do not have adequate financial strength to offset the costs of disaster impacts, the role of the private sector becomes crucial in the protection of assets. The aim of this research work is to develop a built environment disaster resilience investment enhancement framework that integrates disaster resilience maturity and business risks for SMEs. Key issues relevant to private sector disaster resilience investment enhancement has been extracted from literature. Further stage of this research work will make use of the highlighted key issues towards achieving the aim of the study. The work done so far is hereby presented in this paper. The main areas reported are: the problem background, the specific objectives of the study, key lessons from literature, and the summary of research design. It is clear that there is insufficient research and development in addressing the issue of encouraging private sector investment in disaster resilience. Building resilience is addressed primarily as a public sector issue where often disasters are dealt with as an afterthought without adequate planning and investment in building resilience capacity.]]