Bangladesh suffers from floods, cyclones, storm surge, river bank erosion, earthquake, drought, salinity intrusion, fire and tsunami. Cyclones and floods particularly caused massive damages.

A series of inter-related institutions, at both national and sub-national levels have been created for disaster management. As per the Rules of Business of the Government of Bangladesh, the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief  is mandated to formulate policies, prepare plans, and monitor and coordinate all aspects of disaster activities. The field level activities of  are carried out by two subordinate offices e.g. the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) and Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP), While DDM is responsible for dissemination of all information on natural disasters, including flood information at community level, flood preparedness, awareness raising and capacity building activities, and also is responsible for conducting relief and rehabilitating operations with the help of district and upazila administrations.

The National Plan for Disaster Management defines in broad outline the systemic and institutional mechanisms under which disaster risk reduction and emergency response management is undertaken in Bangladesh. It outlines disaster management vision, strategic goals and conceptual framework. It establishes disaster management regulative and planning frameworks, and identifies priority areas for disaster risk reduction and emergency response management.