Presented

by
Dr. Sarah Khanakwa
• The Effects of a disaster can be ;economic , social,
institutional, political and psychological effects
 Economic effects include three aspects

a) Direct economic effects,

b) Indirect economic effects and,
c) Secondary effects.

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a) Direct economic effects
This involves damage to physical structures such as buildings,
machinery, Finished goods, spare parts, boats, ships,
vehicles, soil, water and crops among others
b) Indirect economic effects
• This includes effects on the economy measured in
monetary terms.
 Increased cost of providing service because
transport costs have increased as a result of damage to
infrastructure or due to conflict necessitating use of air
transport to obtain raw materials or transport goods to
the market. e.g. the post election conflicts in Kenya led
to the increase of fuel prices in Uganda

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 The cost of relocating a factory because of
disasters triggered by human or natural
hazards
 Loss of corporate income due to the collapse
of production or business operations
following war, cyclone and tsunamis among
others
 Loss of personal income because of
unemployment created by the destruction of
production system or business operations
brought about by disaster.

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The cost of providing a service to deal with a
problems generated by the hazard
For example the unplanned and therefore
unbudgeted medical service that has to be
provided in order to respond to epidemics
like cholera brought about by the flood
disaster in Kasese.

 Cost of relocating the landslide victims from

Bududa to Kiryandongo.

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These include the effects of the
disaster on the whole economy and is
measured in terms of:
 Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
 Balance of Trade -with trade partners
 Level of indebtedness-public debt

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These are divided into Primary &
Secondary social effects
a)Primary social effects: refer to
direct consequences of a disaster on
human beings such as death and injury
in the affected community which may
exceed the healing capacities of the
local health services requiring external
assistance.
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b) Secondary Social Effects:
The indirect effect of a disaster on human beings
include:
- Disruption of family relationship and functioning.
- Destruction or damage to social services facilities
such as schools and health units leading to loss of
education and health services
- Displacement of human populations such as the
IDPs camps in Northern Uganda

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 Homelessness
 Unhygienic conditions leading to ill
health and death (secondary
disasters may cause more death than
primary disaster)
 Migration e.g. the Bududa people had

to relocated to Kiryandongo.

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A disaster may compel the set up of
institutions to tackle it in terms of
emergency, rehabilitation and
reconstruction responses.
 These include for example, NUSAF,

Teso Commission, Institution for the

reconstruction of Luwero Triangle

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 Institutions in the broad sense may also change
 These institutions are needed to expedite actions.
 Such new institutions sometimes develop effective

capacity for identifying and executing projects and

improve government capacity to channel and use
national and international resources effectively.

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 In other cases, however such institutions
created to attend, plan and execute a
specific reconstruction programme tend to
perpetuate themselves duplicating functions
and tapping scarce resources and
mismanaging or misusing these resources.
 In broad sense new institutions may be

more progressive

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A disaster may lead to loss of power by a
political leader if not well handled as the
opposition will use it as a weapon to win
elections.
 Sometimes the Political dimension of risk
becomes particularly evident after disaster,
a community expresses its anger at what it
believes to have been inadequate response
or lack of preparedness on behalf of
authorities

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 When one is exposed to events beyond the
normal boundaries of human experience,
there is psychological wounding that results
into all kinds of stress reactions.
 These reactions may include threat to life,

trauma, or loss of home and witnessing of

violence to others, suicidal tendencies etc.

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 When reactions to these experiences such as
feeling of pain, withdrawal, aggressive behaviour,
fantasy of revenge, fear or anxiety wanes after
some time, these reactions are termed Post-
Traumatic Stress Reaction (PTSR).
 But when they persist long after the disaster, the

condition is called Post- Traumatic Stress

Disorder (PTSD).

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 Disaster Response has two elements
namely:
1. Pre-Disaster Planning
2. Post Disaster Response

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Pre-disaster planning is a comprehensive
range of efforts made to ensure that
the destructive and disruptive effects of
a disaster is reduced or neutralized if it
occurs.
*Japan has been considered in the past
to have the highest degree of pre-
disaster preparedness in the World

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Pre-Disaster Planning consists of 3 components:
i. Disaster Prevention,
ii. Disaster mitigation and
iii. Disaster Preparedness.
i). Disaster Prevention: Focuses on the hazard
that causes the disaster and tries to eliminate or
neutralize its direct effects.
Examples of disaster prevention is the
construction of a dam to prevent flooding,
construction of tsunamis wall etc. –surge gates in
Japan. in the Bible Joseph assisted Egypt to
prepare against the seven years of famine.

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 Focuses on measures taken to minimize the
destructive effects of a disaster on human
structures, human systems and human beings. It
aims at reducing vulnerability
 Mitigation efforts offer the most cost-effective

way of dealing with disasters.

 With good planning, most mitigation measures can
be integrated with normal development activities at
very minimal costs.

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Some examples of mitigation include:
 Strengthening buildings so that they are resistant
to strong winds.
• Planting of drought resistant crops
• Adoption of land use controls to restrict
development in high risk areas
• Development of diversified economies so that
losses in one sector may not be absorbed by
others.

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Note: Reducing harmful effects of disasters require
actions on three fronts:
(i) Reducing vulnerability of physical
settlements
(ii) Reducing vulnerability of the
economy
(iii) Strengthening the social structure
of a community so that coping
mechanism can absorb the shock of
a disaster and promote rapid
recovery

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Steps in reducing physical vulnerability
include the following:
1) Identify high risk area. This is done by relating the
hazard to the terrain and to the probability that it will
occur. This is known as risk mapping.
2) The second step is to identify those communities that are
susceptible to damage or destruction. This is done by
relating risks to human settlements and their structures
to determine whether a community is situated on a site
within a high risk area.
3) The third step is the selection of vulnerability reduction
strategy which may include relocation to safer sites,
strengthening of buildings and planting of trees on slopes
of hills.

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In reducing economic vulnerability the steps followed
as similar to the ones in reducing physical
vulnerability
1) Identify those areas where there are high
probabilities that hazards will occur
2) Identify sectors in the economy that are
vulnerable to hazards. This is done by relating
hazard risk to economic activities or means of
production
3) Selection of vulnerability reduction strategy to
protect the economy, for example: economic
diversification (production of crops, trees,
livestock rearing and non-farm income earning
activities)
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1. Institution Building: Institutions such as local
governments, NGOs, CBOs that can serve as coping
mechanisms can be identified and strengthened by
improving their organizational structures, knowledge and
leadership in disaster management.
2. Increase the coping mechanisms within a community (eg.
rotating credit associations or groups, encouraging
communities to diversify their production, initiate seed
bank)
3. Broaden contacts of local groups and encourage
cooperation among groups within society.

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 Focuses on developing plans to respond to a disaster once
it threatens or has occurred. Two major concerns: Before
& Post Disaster Aspects
Preparedness is an estimation of emergency needs and the
identification of the resources to meet the needs.

Examples of disaster preparedness include:

(i) Establishment of emergency command
(ii) Development of a preparedness plan that sets out the
sequence of activities and responsibilities of each
participant

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Examples of disaster preparedness
(iii) A preparedness plan includes rescue and evacuation plan,
and emergency plan for hospitals and estimation of human
capacity and resources needed to implement it.
(iv)Development of tools necessary to respond and implement
the plan. This include communication networks, transport
system, strategic placement of search and rescue
equipment and resources to be used in the response.

(v) Establishment of communication system

(vi) Training in search and rescue and first aid

(vii) Training the community members: A preparedness plan

and tools are of little value unless people know how to
effectively use them.

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Post-disaster response consist of 3 components namely;
a) Disaster Emergency,

b) Disaster Rehabilitation

c) Disaster Reconstruction

d) Disaster Emergency Response: refers to activities

aimed at saving lives when disaster strikes.
• It involves implementing disaster preparedness plan.
• This may include search and rescue, evacuation from areas
still vulnerable to disaster, provision of first aid or medical
assistance, provision of temporary shelters, restoration of
transportation and communication links, and assessment of
people and private and public property affected

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 In rehabilitation efforts are made to
restore the most pressing services and
the most essential Infrastructure and
facilities.
 It includes repairing shelters, transport

infrastructure, water, sanitation and

drainage systems, creation of new jobs,
offering of credit facilities and initiation of
projects to address the consequences of
the disaster.
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 Is characterized by the physical
reordering of the community and
physical environment
 It involves reconstruction of houses,

roads and other community

infrastructure and facilities
 Reconstruction more importantly means

taking the community to a situation

better than the one before the disaster
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 This is because the situation before the disaster
may have contributed to the disaster
 In reconstruction, if settlements were located
along a river valley, they have to be relocated to
higher and safer ground away from the path of
floods for instance
 It also means that houses in the settlements must
be reconstructed in such a manner that they are
resistant to floods, strong winds and earthquakes
among others

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 Reconstruction also entails strengthening the economy and
the social organization of the community to enable them
cope with future disasters (integration of mitigation in
reconstruction and development)
 Reconstruction means equitable distribution of resources
and opportunities to minimize conflict in society
 Reconstruction means educating people in disaster
management, including conflict management and resolution
 Reconstruction provide opportunity for planned
development to ensure that the communities and the
country as a whole is resistant to hazards and that if
hazards occur there is minimum damage which would
ensure that human development endure

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1. Top management Support
2. Disaster management Planning Committee
3. Perform a Risk Assessment
i. Identify and Rank Key Functions
ii. Avoid the ‘Black Box’ Trap
4. Prioritize your threats
5. Establish critical Systems priorities
6. Develop Recovery Plan
7. Adopt the ‘three Cs’
i. Communication
ii. Cooperation
iii. Coordination
8. Train your people
9. Communicate your plan
10. Don’t quit

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A framework to address disaster recognition, response, and
recovery
D: Detection
I: Incident Command (hierarchical management system to
respond to an emergency) - field response system
S: Safety & Security
A: Assess Hazards
S: Support
T: Triage & Treatment
E: Evacuation
R: Recovery

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Major Phases of Disaster Management Cycle.

Disaster
impact

Preparedness Response

Mitigation Recovery

Prevention Development

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 Questions, Comments and Concerns are
welcome!

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