Following the El Niño occurrence of 1982-83, the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed the need for technical cooperation in natural hazard management. In response, the Department of Regional Development and Environment (DRDE) initiated the Natural Hazard Project with support from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID). OAS by that time had been providing services in regional development planning for over twenty years and in 1984 published Integrated Regional Development Planning: Guidelines and Case Studies from OAS Experience. In keeping with the principles set forth in that book, the OAS approach incorporates natural hazard management issues into the development planning process.