This paper presents and applies the social risk management (SRM) conceptual framework to examine links between disaster risk, hazards, vulnerability, risk management, and social protection (SP). The paper makes the case that it is important to mainstream social protection policies into the disaster risk management (DRM) agenda and, vice versa as a means to improve household and community resilience to natural disasters. The paper proposes different types of actions that can help households and communities better manage risks related to natural hazards, especially by promoting SP policies and programs that could reduce vulnerability through various ex-ante actions that strengthen assets and livelihoods, and improved “planned coping”, which are ex-ante interventions that help households and communities recover and reconstruct assets and livelihoods after a hazard event is manifested.