Post-Disaster Reconstruction Of The Built Environment - Research Paper Example

Post-Disaster Reconstruction Of The Built Environment Hyogo Frame for Action is an outcome of the United Nations’ conference dubbed World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) held in Kobe, in Japan, in 2005. The conference brought more than one hundred and sixty countries from all over the world, specialists in various fields and many non-governmental organizations. Hyogo Framework for Action emphasizes disaster reduction. It underscores efforts of risk detection and information. Countries were encouraged to uphold a culture of resilience and safety. It seeks to strengthen the preparedness of nations and states towards disasters (Thomas and Lorna and Ronnie 101). HFA reckons that risk reduction for disasters needs incorporation of local and national efforts to implement. Countries should make legislation and policies directed towards disaster reduction. At the national and legislative level, HFA encourages the adoption of mechanisms by all sectors to facilitate disaster and risk reduction efforts. Such mechanisms should encourage dialogue that enhances both local and national awareness of the areas of concern in disaster and risk management (Birkmann 49). Countries are also encouraged to integrate risk management along with policies of development such as in poverty reduction and other planning strategies like Millennium Development Goals. HFA enacts decentralization of resources and responsibilities to local organizations and authorities. In identifying, assessing and monitoring risks of disaster and timely information, HFA prescribes knowledge of the possible hazards and vulnerabilities. At the national level, countries are encouraged to map risks and factor in this information, in policy making. This should be combined with other systems that will make it easy for policy makers to evaluate impacts of disasters (United Nations 3). Disaster occurrences are supposed to be documented so as to enable dissemination of statistics to international, national, regional and local agencies. HFA recommends the implementation of efficient warning mechanisms for timely disaster warning. Warning mechanisms adopted should be easily understandable to the affected people and should factor in issues of gender, livelihood and culture (HFA 117). Effective disaster warning will guide targeted people appropriately and inform disaster response agencies efficiently. HFA supports education and innovation as essential elements in building a culture of resilience and safety. Among important activities to help achieve this is prioritization of exchange and management of information. People should have access to information on possible risks of disasters especially those living in areas that are highly prone to disasters. Networks between planners, managers and experts should be strengthened so as to enhance the utilization of expertise available locally. Disaster management workers and members of the scientific community are encouraged to partner in giving their indispensable contribution towards disaster and risk reduction (Jha and Zuzana 69). HFA prescribes the inclusion of disaster management information in curricula at various levels of education and training. Research should assist in assessing for disaster risks and the costs and benefits that come with every venture geared towards risk reduction. Public awareness should seek to involve the media in promoting education to the public. In reduction of underlying risk factors, HFA identifies risks of disasters that have to do with economic, social and environmental conditions in a community. HFA emphasizes sound management of natural and environmental resources. It campaigns for effective economic and social development measures such as those that help in ensuring community food security. This goes with integration of sound planning of health sector. Hospitals should be built with a capacity, to assist during disaster incidences (Field 48). On economic considerations, HFA recommends the development of alternative financial measures to aid in disaster management. Better land use and planning are identified as instrumental in efforts of risk and disaster reduction. HFA advises that agencies, communities and individuals in areas which are highly vulnerable to risk of disaster be adequately prepared for effective response. The key activities identified to achieve preparedness include strengthening of policy, institutional and technical capacities of local and national disaster management organizations. Preparedness calls for regular reviewing of disaster response measures and mechanisms. There should be exercises to test and assess the level of preparedness including evacuation and provision of relief services (Verchick 37). HFA supports the development of an emergency kitty to enhance preparedness efforts, response and recovery measures. Communities should foster volunteerism among their members to help in disaster management and risk reduction. NGO Report To assess the progress of the HFA, we shall focus on the performance of five NGOs that were funded by United Kingdom department for international development (DFID) in 2005. The NGOs ended their projects in 2010. These NGOs are ActionAid, Christian Aid, Practical Action, Tearfund and Plan. The NGOs were to conduct disaster risk reduction measures in different countries. It is essential to assess the performance of these NGOs on the basis of their priorities in disaster risk reduction (DRR), effectiveness in vulnerability and risk assessment and governance (Dasgupta and Ismail and Partha 94). Looking at the outline of the projects of each NGO, ActionAid’s DRR project targeted schools to promote safety in schools located in areas of high risk of disaster. This helped institutionalize efforts of HFA within the education systems. To realize the success of the project, the NGO engaged in activities such as mobilization of resources to enhance school safety, awareness raising, promoting schools’ disaster preparedness, training, mobilization of civil society and governmental agencies for action and soliciting for policies related to DRR (Bumgarner 74). Christian Aid emphasized Building Disaster Resilient Communities (BDRC). Their project sought to strengthen community capacity to help in the management and recovery from and mitigation of disasters. The NGO tried to incorporate disaster risk reduction measures into community development ventures. They also solicited policies to help entrench DRR. Plan devoted its efforts in trying to popularize the centrality of children and young people in risk reduction when a disaster strikes. This was in DRR’s recognition that children have the right to be involved in processes that influence their lives. It sought to put up child-oriented community based disaster risk reduction mechanisms while impacting national policies and relevant practices (Marchand 54). Plan intervened through school curricula, extra-curricular and management practices. Practical Action put up a livelihood-oriented approach to community DRR. The NGO struck partnerships between the government and other community agencies. Communities that have sustainable livelihoods are better placed to handle effects of disasters. The NGO tapped onto knowledge, technologies and capacities that were locally available. This helps in reducing on a community’s over-dependence on external aid. This is something that has been picked up widely and is being mainstreamed in national and international disaster risk reduction. Amongst the leading nations in adopting this approach include, Nepal, Peru, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. The benefit of the approach notwithstanding, entrenching DRR into the working practices of a nation relies on its policies (Amaratunga and Richard 38). Tearfund went into working with vulnerable areas in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Malawi. Tearfund sought to put mechanisms in place to help attend to underlying and immediate causes of vulnerability to disasters. Communities were helped to assess their individual risks and capacity to counter them. In terms of choices and priorities, DRR requires a well-structured approach to help identify, assess and reduce disaster risks. This approach also seeks to mitigate social-economic exposure to disasters while addressing environmental and other hazards. DRR is difficult to apply because it is too wide and complicated. From observations of the performance of the NGOs, proper targeting is recommended so as to ease the application of the approach. Targeting requires prioritizing the most vulnerable people (Dasgupta and Ismail and Partha 94). Such include children, women and people living with disabilities. DRR projects by the NGOs suggested that HFA lacks proper guidelines, to identifying marginalized groups. Agencies should take time to study individual, community structures and the local power systems. This would be instrumental in identifying marginalized persons and groups. Vulnerability and capacity analysis help in investigating risks faced by people in a specific locality. The analysis assesses people’s ability to handle disasters. It is necessary in identifying vulnerable people, causes for this vulnerability and the impact of this vulnerability on the people. Majority of the NGOs used this approach to assess the performance of their projects. This approach reveals whether the efforts of NGO are addressing people’s felt needs. Studies suggest that vulnerability and capacity analysis are widely conducted using a normative model that denies its users the knowledge of other possible models and the possible challenges while using the approach (Amaratunga and Richard 39). If VCA is conducted appropriately, it would aid successful implementation of DRR. HFA upholds governance as one of its key priorities in DRR. Tearfund reported that government agencies should be educated adequately on disaster risk reduction and on their responsibility in meeting the needs of their communities that have to do with DRR. This training is essential in boosting the impact of risk intervention. To do this, non-governmental organizations would need to engage more in political processes. NGOs have the propensity to influence government and political institutions (Bumgarner 75). In its child-oriented DRR initiative, in El Salvador, Plan partnered with the education sector to involve children in developing a plan for school protection. These were measures for disaster mitigation entrenched in the school management practices and the education curriculum. This allows for rapid achievement of results. The initiative started with 20 communities in the country but was later picked up, and it spread widely. Christian Aid partnered with 300 active stakeholders in the Philippines who helped in the formulation of Disaster Risk Management Act, in 2010 (Dasgupta and Ismail and Partha 94). The act focused on key causes of vulnerability and recommended measures to raise community resilience. It served to streamline structures of the government to allow for the entrenchment of community based disaster risk reduction. Works Cited Amaratunga, Dilanthi, and Richard Haigh. Post-disaster Reconstruction of the Built Environment: Rebuilding for Resilience. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print. Birkmann, Jörn. Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: Towards Disaster Resilient Societies. New Delhi: Teri Press, 2006. Print. Bumgarner, Jeffrey B. Emergency Management: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print. Dasgupta, Samir, İsmail Şiriner, and Partha S. De. Women's Encounter with Disaster. Kolkata: Frontpage, 2010. Print. Field, Christopher B. Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaption. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print. United Nations. Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters [mid-Term Review 2010-2011]. Geneva: United Nations, 2011. Print. Jha, Abhas K, and Zuzana Stanton-Geddes. Strong, Safe, and Resilient: A Strategic Policy Guide for Disaster Risk Management in East Asia and the Pacific. Washington: World Bank Publications, 2013. Print. Marchand, M. Modelling Coastal Vulnerability: Design and Evaluation of a Vulnerability Model for Tropical Storms and Floods. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2009. Print. Thomas, Judy R, Lorna Inniss, and Ronnie Griffith. National Progress Report on the Implementation of Hyogo Framework for Action 2006 - 2010. St. Michael, Barbados: D E M, 2011. Print. Verchick, Robert R. M. Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2010. Print. Read More