In the context of urbanisation, disaster risk increases as a result of badly planned and managed urban development, degraded ecosystems and poverty. The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) processes developed in several Latin American cities show the benefits of making risk reduction an integral part of local development. The importance of good information for risk assessment, government civil society collaboration, and links between local, national and regional levels of government is also evident. Latin America’s DRR experiences can offer a wealth of lessons for African and South Asian counterparts embarking on their own urban risk reduction processes.