Structural Response to Building Capacity Needs for DRR

Slide 1: Structural response to building capacities needs for DRR Sarbjit Singh Sahota, Director, RedR India www.redr.org

Slide 2: The problems of our times—from fighting global epidemics and terrorism to preparing for natural disasters, from mediating ethno-political conflict to preventing wars, from revitalizing cities to revolutionizing health care—cannot be understood or solved by insulated thinking and uncoordinated action . Practitioners need the tools of multiple disciplines to understand these challenging issues and to contribute to their resolution. - University of Pennsylvania

Slide 3: Agenda for this session Explore the type of capacity building required to achieve DRR. Quality, intensity, Scope; will focus on Non- Governmental initiatives.

Slide 4: Capacity Building for DRR is about fostering an integrated approach In multiple domains Development planning Preparedness planning Contingency planning and Emergency Response Across disciplines Breaks-down/over-come boundaries of sector, scale and discipline to ensure that RISK is managed at the most appropriate level by the most appropriate people in a manner that leads to safe development.

Slide 5: Fundamental Premise Disasters are essentially a social and health issue Disasters tend to intensify pre-existing status, differences and inequalities. DRR can be a supper goal; an organizational priority for all its activities.

Slide 6: What are the Sectors, common to any post-disaster Responses? Water Education n g l th Shelter ri Curative Health Care u ea ec H Livelihoods Sanitation S and Nutrition Food lic Mental Health Care…… ub P All these are essentially services, which may have existed pre-disaster as well and The quality of these services reflect in the form of development index of any place.

Slide 7: Services •About 30 million persons in rural during non- areas suffer form sanitation-related disease disaster time? •5 of the 10 top killer diseases of children aged 1-4 in rural areas are related to water and sanitation •About 0.6-0.7 million children die of diarrhea annually •Typhoid, dysentery, gastroenteritis, jaundice and malaria claim the lives of over a fifth of the children aged 1-4 in rural areas •Economic loss of Rs. 1200 crore annually due to loss of man-days on accidents of diseases Source: Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI, 1998-99

Slide 8: Post disaster Suspension of services like water, sanitation….. adverse effects on well-being, quality of life, and development of affected populations as well as those who are not directly affected. Improving sustainability of existing services- an integral approach to risk reduction Reducing vulnerability to disasters can be a Public Health Priority.

Slide 9: First Level of Capacity building Perspective building on: Disasters and development as a continuum Public Health Approach

Slide 10: Disasters and development continuum Information Emergency for Response Manifestation Immediate Cause Natural Hazard Man-Made Hazard Information for Contingency Planning and Underlying cause Early Warning Socio- Economic Vulnerability and Capacities Information for Development, Governance Culture Disaster Structural Cause Prevention and Economy Society Preparednes s Planning Primary Vulnerabilities Infrastructural Population Environment Causes

Slide 11: Environmental Health in Support of Public Health ly pp Sa Su n ita er Shelter tio at W n & Settlement Health and Hygiene Promotion

Slide 12: Decision Making (What to do?) Disaster situation are unstructured problem Similarly DRR is a goal with multiplicity of options, choices and complexity Hence both pre and post disasters pose a significant challenge to decision making. ‘effective decisions’ = Contextual decisions

Slide 13: Organisational capacity Intelligence Decision making Various sciences and perspectives feed into making the intelligence Design required to do effective Problem Solving disaster management. collective intelligence Choice needs to interact with established decision support systems to produce effective Implementation decisions e.g tools to facilitating user decision making , standards disaster decision making is a kin to problem solving, Monitoring

Slide 14: Risk Reduction Planning (two pronged approach) Vulnerability Reduction Vulnerability PREPAREDNESS PLANNING Policies, Laws and By Laws Population Awareness and Partnerships Governance Infrastructures Institutional and Operational Systems Food Security Poverty Reduction Lifelines Early Warning Systems CONTINGENCY PLANNING CAPACITY BUILDING Risk management Environment Service DEVELOPMENT Delivery System PLANNING Hazard

Slide 15: Vulnerability Analysis Mapping vulnerability is not enough, analysis along different pathways [inequality stemming from race, class, gender…..demographic processes (growth and population distribution) etc.] is important for targeted risk reduction. Analysis need to be followed by policy and structural responses. Explores the relationships between "event vulnerability" and "consequence vulnerability" and to understand the recovery process. event vulnerability refer to household vulnerability that is associated with the direct impacts from a disaster agent; and consequence vulnerability will refer to the household's vulnerability associated with the social and political processes of recovering from the disaster event.

Slide 16: Addressing vulnerability: Vulnerability reduction is a political- economic phenomenon, which more than often reinforces the existing patters. institutions define problems in terms of what their own capacities Need is to go much beyond 'technical fix' approach and consider the opportunity costs and how that capital might be spent in other ways to deal with the forces that generate peoples' vulnerability.

Slide 17: Policy Response to Vulnerability Analysis state to engage in activities that deal with inherent inequality and prejudice? What if, state is part of the problem in maintaining such power system there are few governments in the world which officially claim that they are uninterested in protecting their own citizens. They may be interested in potentially cheaper/practical ways of reducing vulnerability.

Slide 18: We all need to engage in DRR but what about resource, technologies, implementation….? Do resource constrained regions and countries have a chance? The earthquake triggered tsunamis that crossed the Indian Ocean with great force. A 90 foot wave was measured in Sumatra, Indonesia, and a 12 foot wave was measured in Puntland, Somolia.

Slide 19: Comprehensive Risk Reduction Comprehensive Risk Reduction in Community Sanitation Facilitated Ris p s is k Re e s t ti o n Transition du Natural Hazards s ou duc Water cti i ar Re d Negotiation h v sk ve on Education ug Ri hie :P o hr ster ac ro Health Ta Food sp Disaster Risk s Di er Identification it y Step-I: Community Organisation Consciousness based Task Based RR is a sectoral responsibility delivered in coordination with others. Disaster Prone Community

Slide 20: What Capacity do we need? A. skills, attitude and aptitude required to be a RR facilitators with: Capacity to Communicate and work with….…. Cross sectoral perspective; Integrated Knowledge-Ref. Uni.of Penn statement Capacity to help in planning and management Capacity to channel technical knowledge and wisdom from…. RedR supports individuals and organisations to create comprehensive capacities and capabilities to work on DRR, hence create communities of practice; an important step towards institutionalisation of DRR.

Slide 21: What Capacity do we need? B. Technology Technology for Technology Overarching Issues Disaster Risk for Disaster Reduction Response Housing and Housing and Appropriate settlement Early standards Settlement Warning Planning Best Operating Drinking Water Practices Water •For RedR, appropriate technologies are part of the Sewerage and Responsive to Sanitation sanitation Environment and knowledge that we Logistics for sectoral risk reduction. deploy ecology Solid Waste •The knowledge is Health Care though its Specific and delivered Culture members management Communicatio the training courses. Health Systems Transferable, n Adoptable Communication

Slide 22: What do we need? Level of Resource Available for Development C. Resources Space for Civil Society Increase We have great a Chance Quality and Quantity of Services Build organizations with capacity and capability to plan and •Resources Decrease as we move away from the administrative capital implement strategic action for development •Essentially reach of resources reducesresponse; disaster preparedness & disaster risk reduction.

Slide 23: Thank you

Slide 24: E.g. of a resource rich ….

Slide 25: 2005 Hurricane Katrina

Slide 26: Hurricane Katerina and the city of New Orleans, USA Many of our mitigation efforts themselves degrade the environment and contribute to the next disaster … simply postponing events of even greater ultimate magnitude …the building of levée banks ... encourage development behind them which increases losses when eventually they fail.”

Slide 27: E.g. of a resource constraint ….

Slide 28: angladesh lood Plains Flood shelters: just one example of how communities can protect themselves from the worst of the floods. Banks of earth are raised by up to 15 feet and cover an area of couple of football fields. People dig huge pond in middle & use this earth to raise the ground. Whenever the floods come, people can bring their livestock, possessions – even their homes – to safety. The pond in the middle becomes an important source of food, as it is used to farm fish.

Slide 29: “Disaster risk is an unresolved problem of development” Hence Development need to be responsive to our needs (localised/contextual): link people, place and local Government structures. Find integrated solutions that target direct and indirect risks Community based planning for risk reduction is one way forward. Community based planning was a vision behind 73rd and 74th amendment.

Slide 30: The key issue on emergency service delivery Emergencies threaten wellbeing of large population over a very short span of time All the services need to be planned and managed in an express mode that can match the fast changing emergency environment. This demand for daily or short cycle monitoring. In doing so it is also important to understand interdependency of these services; Complex decision making. Coordination of various service providers to access and analyse the information and mount appropriate responses is critical to achieve optimum service levels. Hence Improved decision-making at all levels- Development of disaster risk reduction strategies in a multi-lateral environment

Slide 31: Pre-disaster Service level In groups, brain storm and come-up with recommendations for sustainable services for DRR in Urban Areas. 20 min. for discussion followed by presentation.

Slide 32: The way forward for RedR Create and institutionalise decision support systems (DSS), tools and techniques that integrate various sectoral perspectives and modes of implementation. Sphere standards for emergencies, Dynamic Risk Register for DRR in urban settings are some of the existing DSS, which can help in integration of knowledge. RedR supports individuals and organisations to understand and use such tools, hence create communities of practice; an important step towards institutionalisation of DRR.

Slide 33: Risk Register in urban governance can fulfil the need of: participation and involvement of broad range of stakeholders in decision-making. Allocating responsibility for disaster risk reduction Integrated planning and decision making framework. A coordinating framework

Slide 34: Risk Register in urban governance can fulfil the need of: participation and involvement of broad range of stakeholders in decision-making. Allocating responsibility for disaster risk reduction Integrated planning and decision making framework. A coordinating framework

Slide 35: A tool to facilitating user decision making