Integrating healthcare waste management in disaster risk reduction strategies

Disasters often trigger secondary crises due to the surge in hazardous healthcare waste, threatening already vulnerable populations. This study explores healthcare waste management (HCWM) as a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy through the lens of stakeholder theory. Drawing on interviews with humanitarian and healthcare actors in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Vietnam, it analyses stakeholder roles across three disaster scenarios: pandemics, regime changes and natural disasters. Findings reveal that stakeholder influence on HCWM is highly context dependent. HCWM can support DRR through vertical investments in capacity building, internal incinerators, and custom HCWM standards, helping maintain essential service quality during relief operations.