Personal Preparedness for Disasters in Peru - Case Study Example

Name: Course: Course code: Tutor: Date: Introduction Over the years, Peru and other nearby countries have been hit by several large earthquakes over a length of time, which includes the major earthquakes that hit the country in 2007. All these experiences have offered the Peruvian government and its people a strong sense of concern for disasters, and a very powerful interest in technology which reduces the impacts of such occurrences, which includes improved anti-seismic technology and prediction of earthquakes (Rainer Matyssek). Peru has always been prone to natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, extreme weather events and fires. Disaster management activities are paramount as an antecedent for more efficient humanitarian response and for mitigating humanitarian caseloads at the time of disasters. Past experiences have confirmed that an efficient and effective humanitarian response at the beginning of any crisis is influenced heavily by how agencies respond to crises, together with their available resources and capabilities at the levels. In such cases, Peru must therefore be prepared in case of any disasters and emergencies as a result of natural hazards mentioned earlier or man-made causes (i.e. urban fire) so as to protect its citizens from loss and personal injury and any loss of life and protect dame of property. Disaster and emergency preparedness is one of the most important components of disaster risk reduction. It comprises of actions that are aimed at increasing the coping capacity of regions and make them more resistant to disasters. Situational analysis According to Hackman, several organizations have come up with ways of providing the assistance to the most affected areas in Peru. Such organizations include Non-governmental bodies like Disaster Telecoms International” (DTI) based in Ireland with its aim being to offer telecommunication resources for disaster reduction and relief operations. Despite its effort to offer their assistance to affected areas in Peru, there have been some of the government agencies that create the stumbling blocks for Disaster Telecoms International (DTI) in offering their services. Demand for clearances of customs duty by the relevant authorities is one of the greatest hindrances to offering relief assistance to the affected areas and people. This comes as a result of lack of partnership between the local agencies, the government, and foreign agencies. Lack of innovative partnerships between the local authorities and the external organizations creates a limited access to skills, technology, communications equipment, experiences and competencies to the local resources. Lack of commitment to partnering with foreign agencies includes an unwillingness to lead when it is best necessary. How to meet the challenges In order to meet the challenges faced by the Disaster Telecoms International in solving the state of affairs in Peru, they have to scale up their needs so as to meet various needs of the vulnerable people as permitted by their resources. In the case of growing increasing complexity of challenges and disasters to coordination as a result of emergence of other factors such as government agencies and other private organizations, they should continue promoting the major principles and properly coordinated humanitarian plans. DTI should adopt their prevention preparedness and response measures so as to be best suited to the urban context and attend to tensions and society conflicts. They should be attentive to vulnerable groups such as women, elderly, youth, and marginalized groups in the society. Irrespective off the restrictions impounded by the local authorities, Disaster Telecoms International should strive at saving the lives and livelihoods by attending to disasters and crises in a coherent, effective and timely manner. Their priority should be aimed at helping the most vulnerable group and make sure that the pressing needs are being attended to. To do this effectively, logistics systems and need assessment should be interfaced seamlessly and also match the info of unsatisfied needs with those on the assistance along the way. The organization should align their practices and systems to ensure that this crucial information is available to their disaster management team on time. Early recovery planning in Peru has to begin in correspondence with earlier relief efforts so as to ensure well-linked and coherent disaster response. Disaster Telecoms International should scale up their surge recovery capacity and further develop their recovery tools The relevant and effective response needs a deeper understanding of local communities as economic units and social entities as well as respective local and regional environments. The organization should continuously and consciously build relations with decision makers and significant opinion leaders and influence them- recently known as humanitarian diplomacy, so as to create an enabling environment for both immediate response and long-term recovery work. As far as whether related threats and environmental degradation is concerned, the organization’s risk-informed response must assist communities to come up with solutions that promote sustainable natural resource management and consider both the present and the future imposition pacts of climate change (Diamond). The Disaster Telecoms International reference centers for livelihoods/food security, psychosocial support and climate change have to be well position so as to offer expertise to societies who closely work with some communities in building their resilience. If possible, disaster response activities should be led by volunteer teams and staff from the National Society of Peru where the crisis or the disaster has occurred. This will minimize the imposing of customs duty and also strengthens the critical local response capacity. Whenever there is a need, the organization will get complementary support from its extensive Red Cross Crescent global network and other foreign partners. In case of any eventual withdrawal from any foreign mission, the organization has to ensure that there is a well-coordinated and support from the outset through proper and careful planning. This will comprise of analyzing and making a decision on how to hand over certain programs and activities to relevant local and national partners which comprises of the local authorities and the as well as the Peru’s national society. Disaster Telecoms International should continually analyze on the humanitarian trends, increase their knowledge management tools, incorporate lessons from past operations and maintain the flexibility to effectively and quickly adapt in a changing world (Ducker). This comprises of further fostering of such approaches like cash transfer programming that enables those who are affected by the crises and disaster to achieve their needs according to their needs and provide the support of the local economy. Invest in risk reduction and community preparedness Communities globally are mostly exposed constantly to food shortages, more extreme weather events, and natural calamities. All these hazards become more disastrous when they destroy or disturb the functionality of the entire community. Thus, scaling up in resilience-building and preparedness is the key to anticipating and coping with the future threats. With lots of capital being pumped into the organization, it should widen its multilateral risk reduction actions and also ensure proper documentation of urban environmental and other risks related to climate. In addition, the organization should build its approaches basing on the evidence provided. This comprises of use of such international indicators, creating cost-benefit analysis of measures used in reducing the risks and creating mechanisms for tracking vulnerability Strengthening the preparedness of an organization The preparedness of an organization consisting of its contingency planning is needed to address more recurrent and less predictable local small and medium scale calamities, and to fortify the capacities of its network to respond to key regional, national and international disasters. The DTI and other national societies should strive to act pre-emptively on early information of scientific warning so as to be prepared for impending disasters; which comprises of heeding to seasonal forecasts for uncommon wet or dry conditions to, for instance, pre-position stocks and retrain and alert volunteers to aid in emergency operations Diamond proposes that organization should be committed to assisting the Peru government to become better prepared for common problems relating to disaster response. In relation to International Disaster Response Laws, Rules and Principles, (IDRL) program, Disaster Telecoms International and other national societies should promote international guidelines so as to aid the government in streamlining their domestic policies and laws. Making use of these guidelines, the Peru government should eliminate needless delays in offering the humanitarian relief while the same maintaining at the same time better quality and coordination of assistance being offered. Put those affected by disaster and crisis in the center of what they do B government and the organization should know that participatory approaches during a crisis work for the good especially when strengthening maintaining community resilience. Their experience of working with people affected by a crisis is that motivating people to make their own judgments and decisions and offering them freedom to choose ensures that their assistance is pertinent and offers a moral support to the affected population. They should aim at placing those who are affected by the crisis and disaster in the center of their actions so as to ensure that the support they are offering brings unity in the communities without worsening prevailing tensions. Innovative practices and tools for communication and feedback with those who are affected should be utilized, where both the traditional and modern technology should also be used to provide solutions. Make use of influence and leverage of Red Cross and Crescent value In order to avoid such scenarios that happened in the airport where communication equipment were impounded, Non-Governmental organizations such as Disaster Telecoms International should lobby for support from the entire public, partner organizations and donors for opportunities to rally behind them in offering such assistance as donations, volunteering, and partnering. In order to expand their scope and reach, they should earn the public trust and should make use of those opportunities to provide assistance (Berton). Humanitarian diplomacy and Red Cross advocacy work acts as a complement to their services and programs, therefore, will reduce the statutory requirements imposed on them such as clearance of customs duty. Such services include promotion of equality to basic amenities and disaster services and also action against stigmatization and discrimination of vulnerable people In addition, DTI should strengthen its relationship with decision makers, particularly governments. This can be done by having national societies sit at the same table when making humanitarian decisions so as to have sustainable and predictable flow of resources for their humanitarian activities Partnering with others Creating innovative partnerships within and outside the organization will make the organization get access to wide range of competencies, skills and experiences so as to add value to its existing capacities. The organization’s commitment to the partnership should include its willingness to lead where they are best able to. It should seek partnership so as to enhance their capacity in supple programming delivery through their cash learning partnership and also hosting their main inter-agency initiatives like Code of Conduct, Sphere Project, and the Global Road Safety Project Act in such a manner so as to focus on results and impact All the resources entrusted to non-governmental organizations like DTI in delivering assistance to those in need should provide the value for their money. This requires them to be cost-effective, meet the needs of the people and be able to show the results of their work. They should further strengthen their assessment, planning and analysis as the base for appropriate decision-making and worthy action supersede the standards of the industry. The organization should engage in meaningful communication with relevant government agencies to continuously enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, relevance and create an impact on every beneficiary. There should be a continuous monitoring of their progress against set performance indicators, which comprises of gender-based data, provide a report from local to international level. Disaster management organizations should continuously learn how to enhance their performance by using such tools as real-time evaluation, which are carried out for extensive operations to train disaster managers on how to identify challenges and successes during their disaster management systems Conclusion As earlier mentioned, demand for clearances of customs duty by the relevant authorities is one of the greatest hindrances to offering relief assistance to the affected areas and people (Berton). This comes as a result of lack of partnership between the local agencies, the government and foreign agencies such as DTI. Lack of innovative partnerships between the local authorities and the external organizations creates a limited access to skills, technology, communications equipment, experiences and competencies to the local resources. Lack of commitment to partnering with foreign agencies includes unwillingness to lead when it is best necessary. Disaster Telecoms International (DTI) should continually analyze on the humanitarian trends, increase their knowledge management tools, incorporate lessons from past operations and maintain the flexibility to effectively and quickly adapt in a changing world. This comprises of further fostering of such approaches like cash transfer programming which enables those who are affected by the crises and disaster to achieve their needs according to their needs and provide the support of the local economy (Hackman). To avoid resistance from various stakeholders, DTI should strengthen its relationship with decision makers, particularly governments. This can be done by having national societies sit at the same table when making humanitarian decisions so as to have a sustainable and predictable flow of resources for their humanitarian activities. The organization should be committed to assisting the Peru government to become better prepared for common problems relating to disaster response. In relation to International Disaster Response Laws, Rules and Principles, (IDRL) program, DTI, and other national societies should promote international guidelines so as to aid the government in streamlining their domestic policies and laws. Irrespective off the restrictions impounded by the local authorities, DTI should strive at saving the lives and livelihoods by attending to disasters and crises in a coherent, effective and timely manner. Their priority should be aimed at helping the most vulnerable group and make sure that the pressing needs are being attended to. In order to do this effectively, logistics systems and need assessment should be interfaced seamlessly and also match the info of unsatisfied needs with those on the assistance along the way. Works Cited Berton, Lee. "Ethical Standards for Disaster Management." Wall Street Journal. (2004): 7-10. Diamond D, McGlinchey PR. Effective strategies to reduce disaster. Washington, DC:: The Advisory Board Company, 2004. Ducker, A. "Disaster management: assessment,prevention, and compliance." Case Manager (2005): 60-65. Freeman, Edward. Stakeholder Theory of Modern Corporation "Ethical Issues in Business". New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002. Hackman, J. Richard. Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. NY: Cengage Learning, 2002. Rainer Matyssek. Climate Change, Air Pollution and Global Challenges: Understanding and Perspectives from Forest Research. Newnes, 2013. Read More

Lack of innovative partnerships between the local authorities and the external organizations creates a limited access to skills, technology, communications equipment, experiences and competencies to the local resources. Lack of commitment to partnering with foreign agencies includes an unwillingness to lead when it is best necessary. How to meet the challenges In order to meet the challenges faced by the Disaster Telecoms International in solving the state of affairs in Peru, they have to scale up their needs so as to meet various needs of the vulnerable people as permitted by their resources.

In the case of growing increasing complexity of challenges and disasters to coordination as a result of emergence of other factors such as government agencies and other private organizations, they should continue promoting the major principles and properly coordinated humanitarian plans. DTI should adopt their prevention preparedness and response measures so as to be best suited to the urban context and attend to tensions and society conflicts. They should be attentive to vulnerable groups such as women, elderly, youth, and marginalized groups in the society.

Irrespective off the restrictions impounded by the local authorities, Disaster Telecoms International should strive at saving the lives and livelihoods by attending to disasters and crises in a coherent, effective and timely manner. Their priority should be aimed at helping the most vulnerable group and make sure that the pressing needs are being attended to. To do this effectively, logistics systems and need assessment should be interfaced seamlessly and also match the info of unsatisfied needs with those on the assistance along the way.

The organization should align their practices and systems to ensure that this crucial information is available to their disaster management team on time. Early recovery planning in Peru has to begin in correspondence with earlier relief efforts so as to ensure well-linked and coherent disaster response. Disaster Telecoms International should scale up their surge recovery capacity and further develop their recovery tools The relevant and effective response needs a deeper understanding of local communities as economic units and social entities as well as respective local and regional environments.

The organization should continuously and consciously build relations with decision makers and significant opinion leaders and influence them- recently known as humanitarian diplomacy, so as to create an enabling environment for both immediate response and long-term recovery work. As far as whether related threats and environmental degradation is concerned, the organization’s risk-informed response must assist communities to come up with solutions that promote sustainable natural resource management and consider both the present and the future imposition pacts of climate change (Diamond).

The Disaster Telecoms International reference centers for livelihoods/food security, psychosocial support and climate change have to be well position so as to offer expertise to societies who closely work with some communities in building their resilience. If possible, disaster response activities should be led by volunteer teams and staff from the National Society of Peru where the crisis or the disaster has occurred. This will minimize the imposing of customs duty and also strengthens the critical local response capacity.

Whenever there is a need, the organization will get complementary support from its extensive Red Cross Crescent global network and other foreign partners. In case of any eventual withdrawal from any foreign mission, the organization has to ensure that there is a well-coordinated and support from the outset through proper and careful planning. This will comprise of analyzing and making a decision on how to hand over certain programs and activities to relevant local and national partners which comprises of the local authorities and the as well as the Peru’s national society.

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