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This Module 3.2. has taken us into more detail on the overall DRR diagram, particularly five out of the six components of this. Drawing down on your experience in different countries, comment on some of these five components.
It is interesting to note that the divide between humanitarian/emergency response and the development needs are not quite as wide as could be thought – the better the five components are addressed developmentally, the better the disaster risk reduction will be, and therefore the less the impact the hazard/disaster will have – thereby reducing the depth/breadth of the humanitarian/emergency response.
If a country is resilient in all of the six components, it stands to reason the DRR program will be more effective. My experience is that Vanuatu does not have major safety & security issues (e.g. no civil war), and this definitely makes a big difference when it comes to the sustainability of DRR initiatives as it allows those involved to focus on the activities/objectives without having the “distraction” of their families or their own welfare.
Good governance – perhaps this is one area in which I can see potential. The government of Vanuatu has had corruption but has also dealt with it (famously earlier this year jailing 13 (out of total 50) of it’s MPs for corruption and causing a change in government and reinforcing the rhetoric that “no one is above the law”.). This shows major progress. However, one area of good governance is also the institutional frameworks at which you are trying to implement projects or programs. Where there exists strong leadership and solid institutional frameworks, the ability to carry out DRR is much higher. Where there is weak leadership easily swung by development $$, and poor management you get poor projects that do not reach their intended objectives when it comes to DRR.
I also see good governance as working with local community institutions – in some islands these can be very strong. This has negative & positives, but the positives are that if you get the local community institution on board with CCDRM work, then there is good coordination, communication and implementation. In communities where the community institutions are weaker (e.g. they do not have clear community leaders / chiefs), it seems much harder to implement community boosting DRR activities.
Although DRR diagram is not in my direct field of work, all of these components listed are somewhat intertwined in Social justice framework practices.
Cambodia has been a country that has been slowly going through the motions of restoration since Pol pot and the khmer rogue took place where there were serious security and safety issues this being a major disaster and no outside aid during this time could get through.
fast forward to today the country has had much development with many NGOs and Government plans and services that has brought help and aid to those that are needing it.
Many issues are still at hand with corruption being high in the worlds listings and lack of good governance, aid founding ends up going to those who arent in need creating a class divide wider than before. With economic and social development within khmer culture there is still a lot of work to do as there has been a reliance formed on aid and services given.
Maybe i have given a few reasons where these 6 components havent and arent working well or inline with the DRR diagram but if we were to have better structures and governance in place its possible to see a difference.All components of DRR are important. I only have direct knowledge of Kenya but that is limited.
Safety and security is poor in a country of 43M people. Old ‘tribal grievances’ still prevail especially at gov’t levels. Political infighting even in the same party persists, like here, but at least we do not have the violence. General security in rural and urban slums is terrible with extreme violence prevalent leading to little walking done at night.
Poverty persists despite the efforts of many overseas aid agencies involved. The gov’t cannot afford to help its poorest people with anything but words.
Many rural areas in Kenya and the horn of Africa have poor soil for crop growing. Many areas have been sold to conglomerates who have shifted their produce to a more profitable, mostly flowers ( for sale in Europe) or tea & coffee, rather than immediate food crops such as maize and millet.
Rainfall in the horn of Africa has been poor for many years resulting in poorer crop yields and subsequent local area famines. Rainfalls in other places have produced local flash floods where quality top-soils have been washed away.
Corruption and nepotism is rife in Kenya although other local countries tend to be worse. Sth Sudan for example where family members of the gov’t high officials seem to have most shares in the country’s resources industries such as oil. Surrounding countries such as Uganda and Kenya seemingly condone this by not freezing assets of these known persons who live in mansions in these external countries. Other African countries are trying to stop corruption but there is a feeling of ‘why should I miss out when my preceding officials have done this?’ Botswana appears to be the local best but neighbouring Zimbabwe has been a prime example for the world to see the template for corruption with the likes of Robert Mugabe at the helm.
Maybe one day, the right persons will come into power in countries and take action and impose jail terms on convicted corrupt officials from the top down?Thanks for some fascinating comments. A couple more additions from here:
1. I mentioned in my email a few days ago the Sentry Report on ‘War crimes shouldn’t pay – stopping the looting and destruction in S.Sudan’ . This highlights the need for good governance at the highest levels of administration.
2. The Weekend Australian Inquirer (17/18 dec 2016) had a brilliant article by David Kilcullen (one of his books is down on the DRM/PPM bibliography) about the current situation in Afghanistan. it was called ‘fragile Kabul takes a hard and soft approach to fight Taliban resurgence’. The first two issues he mentioned were essentially good governance and security …Very interesting comments – thank you all – and I certainly won’t rehash the same territory with my experiences of Kenya given Michael B has commented on it quite aptly. Also concur with you Catherine with your comment on how intertwined community development and humanitarian aid are. Given these 5 of 6 key components of the DRR diagram are factors we often take for granted in a developed nation, and limitations in these are often why we label other nations as ‘developing’, it follows that a country or region with, say, inadequate food security will very easily have its coping resources expended and overwhelmed when an additional challenge or burden emerges. These factors appear are intimately tied to a given nation or region’s resilience; and furthermore with each other, particularly around that notion of social capital. When one or more of these factors (as approached from a ‘community development’ perspective – or the DRR stage) is overwhelmed, social capital is exhausted, and the affected region can no longer adequately respond to mitigate the additional stressor – hence a disaster requiring humanitarian assistance.
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