Increasing flood risk awareness and warning readiness by participation – But who understands what under ‘participation’?

Participation is an often-demanded process in disaster risk reduction (DRR). However, it often unclear who understands what under this term. International organizations such as the United Nations have promoted participation their DRR strategies since 1980s, but further research needed on its opportunities and limitations. Here we highlight understood by according to different actors various international contexts. This study was motivated a workshop where flood-risk resilience experts from 14 countries perceived nature of lack implementation differently. To unravel multitude these perspectives, 27 expert interviews were conducted seven countries: Belgium, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan Peru between March August 2020. Results show that constraints conduction are not only related specific country context differ even within countries. Limitations capacities willingness participate well role importance common issues across investigated contexts