BUILDING DISASTER

RESILIENT
COMMUNITIES
Knowledge Building and
Actionable Knowledge Through
Grassroots Research,
Communication and Participation

Disaster Defined
(UN/ISDR)
A serious disruption of the functioning of
a community or a society causing
widespread human, material,
economic, or environmental losses
that exceed the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its
own resources.
A disaster is a function of the risk process.
It results from the combination of hazards,
conditions of vulnerability, and insufficient
capacity or measures to reduce the
potential negative consequences of risk
(UN/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2004)

Disaster Defined
(IFRC)

A disaster is a sudden,
sudden calamitous event
that seriously disrupts the functioning of
a community or society and causes human,
material, and economic or environmental
losses that exceed the communitys or
societys ability to cope using its own
resources. Though often caused by nature,
disasters can have human origins
(VULNERABILITY+HAZARD) /CAPACITY=DIS
ASTER
ASTER

Risk Defined
Aprobabilityor
threatofdamage,
probability
threat
injury, liability,loss, or any other
negative occurrence that is caused
by external or internal
vulnerabilities and that may be
avoided through pre-emptive action.
(businessdictionary.com)

Vulnerability Defined
The diminished capacity of an individual or
group to anticipate,
anticipate cope with,
with resist and
recover from the impact of a natural or
man-made hazard.
The concept is relative and dynamic. Often,
vulnerability is most often associated
withpoverty, but it can also arise when
people are isolated, insecure and
defenceless in the face of risk, shock or
stress. (IFRC.Org)
People differ in their exposure to risk as a
result of their social group,
group gender, ethnic
or other identity,
identity age and other factors.
factors

Natural Hazard
Defined

Natural hazardsare naturally occurring

physical phenomena caused either by
rapid or slow onset events which can be:
Geophysical:

Earthquakes,
Landslides,
Tsunamis,and
Vulcanic Activity

Hydrological
Avalanches
Floods

Natural Hazard
Defined
Climatological
Extreme temperatures
Drought, and
Wildfires

Meteorological

Cyclones/Typhoons, and
Storms/wave surges)

Biological

Disease epidemicsand
Insect/animal plagues).

Technological/Man-made
Hazard
Technologicalorman-made
hazards are events that arecaused
by humansand occur inor close to
human settlements
Complex emergencies/conflicts,
Famine,
Displaced populations
Industrial accidents,and
Transport accident
Environmental degradation,
Pollution, and
Other accidents.

Aggravating Factors
There are a range of challenges which
result in increased frequency, complexity
and severity of disasters, such as:
Climate change/Global Warming
Unplanned-urbanization,
Under-development
Poverty
Threat of pandemics
(epidemicofinfectious diseasethat has
spread through human populations
across a large region)

How to Determine
Peoples Vulnerability?
Two questions need to be asked:
to whatthreat or hazardare they
vulnerable?
what makes them vulnerableto
that threat or hazard?

How to Counter
Vulnerability?
Requires the reducing the impact of
thehazarditself where possible through
mitigation,predictionandwarning,
preparedness, building capacitiesto
withstand and cope withhazards; and,
Tackling the root causes of vulnerability,
such aspoverty, poor governance,
discrimination, inequality and
inadequate access to resources and
livelihoods.

Capacity to Cope
Hazards
The resources available, ready and
accessible to individuals, households
and communities to cope with a threat
or to resist the impact of a hazard.
Such resources can be physical or
material, but they can also be found in
the way a community is organized or
in the skills or attributes of individuals
and/or organizations in the community.
(IFRC)

MANAGING DISASTERS
IN THE COMMUNITY
LEVEL
Developing Resilient
Communities to Disasters

Disaster Risk
Management Defined
The systematic process of using
administrative decisions,
decisions organization,
organization
operational skills,
skills and capacities and
capabilities to implement policies,
strategies, and coping capacities of the
society and communities to lessen the
impacts of hazards and related environmental
and technological disasters.
This includes all forms of activities,
activities including
structural and non-structural measures to avoid
(prevention) or to limit (mitigation,
preparedness, and response) the adverse
effects of hazards (adapted from UN/ISDR, 2004).

DRM Main Areas of

Activity
1. Disaster Risk Reduction

Prevention
Mitigation
Preparedness

2. Disaster Response

Search and Rescue

Relief

3. Disaster Recovery

Rehabilitation
Reconstruction

Disaster Risk Reduction

Defined
A conceptual framework of elements considered for
minimizing vulnerabilities and disaster risks in
a society to avoid (prevention) or to limit
(mitigation and preparedness) the adverse
impacts of hazards and to facilitate sustainable
development. (UN/ISDR, 2004)

Disaster Risk
Reduction Defined

Components of DRR, being a crosscutting and development issue includes:

Political
Technical
Participatory/Empowerment
Resource Mobilization

Major Players of DRR includes:

National and Local Government Policy and

Decision Makers and Implementers of
Policies
Civil Society
Academic Institutions
Private Sector
Media
(UN/ISDR, 2004).

Principles on Disaster
Risk Reduction

Adverse impacts of hazards can be

managed,
managed reduced, and sometimes even
prevented by taking appropriate actions
to decrease peoples exposure to hazards and
their susceptibility to hazard impacts.
Understanding and increasing peoples
capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist,
and recover from hazard impacts is an
essential component of reducing vulnerability.
DRR aims to enable societies to be more
resilient to natural hazards and to ensure
that development does not inadvertently
increase vulnerability to those hazards.
hazards

Principles on Disaster
Risk Reduction
Recovery activities should do more than merely
return disaster-affected people and
institutions back to the situation that existed
before a disaster.
disaster Recovery phase should offers
opportunities to strengthen the capacity of
community and the local government to cope with
the impact of disasters and to reduce their
vulnerability to future hazards and shocks,
shocks
i.e., restoring destroyed mangroves as protection
against storm surge, increasing fishing
opportunities, or developing the disaster
management skills of local government authorities.
DRR should be incorporated into regular
development planning and programming to
reduce or avoid the negative impacts of future
hazard events.
DRR should implemented using DRM approaches

Disaster Response
Defined
The provision of assistance
or intervention during or

immediately after a disaster to meet the needs of those

affected. It is generally immediate and short-term (UN/ISDR
Web site).
The primary objective of this humanitarian assistance is to
save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human
dignity.
dignity It includes immediate post disaster rescue and relief
activities, such as the provision of food, water and
sanitation, shelter, health services, and other assistance
to the affected population.
It also includes the protection of vulnerable peoplefor
people
example, those involuntarily displaced from their homes by a
hazard event or whose access to relief assistance may be
affected by factors such as a disability (The Sphere Project,
2004).

Principles on Disaster
Response
Disaster-affected populations initially will require
critical life-saving support.
support At the same time,
their communities, institutions, and livelihoods
will have been physically destroyed or
weakened by the impact of the crisis. Many
households and communities will begin a process
of self-recovery as soon as possible after a
disaster, out of practical necessity.
The vulnerabilities that turned a hazard into a
disaster in the first place often get recreated in the
process. For example, homes may be
reconstructed using the same building
techniques that caused them to collapse.
collapse Poor
households may resort to selling off their scarce
productive assets in the immediate aftermath
of a disaster in order to meet their basic needs
and become even more vulnerable to future shocks.

Principles on Disaster
Response
International experience also has demonstrated the
close links between relief and recovery.
recovery The
choices made regarding the kinds of relief
assistance to be provided, and how it is
provided, can facilitate or hinder the recovery of
affected communities (Christoplos, 2006a).
For instance, following the 2005 Pakistan earthquake,
instead of distributing expensive winterized tents with
a limited lifespan, the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation
Fund (PPAF) provided affected communities with
corrugated galvanized iron sheets and tools.
tools The
tools and materials were used by communities
to build themselves temporary shelters using
wood and other materials salvaged from the
rubble. They could be used later in permanent
home reconstruction.
reconstruction

Disaster Response
The choices made regarding the provision of
relief also can have positive or negative
impacts on reducing disaster risksfor
example, undertaking a rapid environmental
impact assessment to identify whether toxic
substances have been released into the
environment following an earthquake (e.g., the
chemical leaks from factories damaged by the
May 2008 earthquake in China1) and then
mounting a campaign to reduce the threat
to nearby communities.
communities
For these reasons, relief needs to be carried
out with a view to supporting and
reinforcing the early recovery and risk
reduction of disaster-affected populations

Disaster Recovery
Defined
Disaster recovery (rehabilitation and
reconstruction) refers to the decisions
and actions taken after a disaster
with a view to restoring or improving
the pre-disaster living conditions of
the stricken community,
community while
encouraging and facilitating necessary
adjustments to reduce disaster risk.
Recovery affords an opportunity to
develop and apply disaster risk
reduction measures (UN/ISDR, 2004).

Principles on Disaster
Recovery
When a natural disaster strikes in a poor
community,
community not only does it cause serious
loss of life and property, it often takes away
or threatens the livelihoods and futures of
those who survived.
survived This is especially the case
where productive household members have
been lost or permanently disabled.
disabled For many
households, not only will their short-term economic
and social vulnerability be increased, but their
ability to cope with future shocks may also
be eroded.
eroded These pressures can contribute to
increased poverty and marginalization in a
society.
society They can aggravate tensions or
conflicts that may have already existed within or
between communities prior to the disaster.

Principles on Disaster
Recovery
In the case of slow-onset or regularly
recurring hazard events or shocks,
many poor communities live in a
constant state of recovery, where
temporary relief has become a
permanent coping strategy.
strategy For example,
in Malawi drought occurs with such
frequency that people have little time to
recover before another drought hits. This has
resulted in deepening poverty, chronic
food insecurity, and aid dependency.

Principles on Disaster
Recovery

To ensure effectiveness and sustainability, recovery

initiatives must be linked to the national and
local development context and processes,
processes as well
as an understanding of the economic, social,
and political conditions that existed prior to the
disaster. Some of these are likely to have been
contributing factors to the risk and vulnerability
that turned the hazard event into a disaster;
disaster
othersfor instance, underlying structural issues
may have an impact on the strategies adopted for
recovery. Lack of understanding of these processes
can lead to poorly targeted and inappropriate
assistance.
This is equally the case for infrastructure rehabilitation
and reconstruction. There are many examples of
schools and health centers rebuilt after natural
disasters that could not afford ongoing
maintenance costs or the staff to run them.
them