Disaster Risk Reduction A Global Red Cross and Red Crescent Strategy

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Disaster Risk Reduction A Global Red Cross and
Red Crescent Strategy

• Presentation by Eduard Tschan, IFRC Amman
• Cairo
• March 12, 2008

Contact Eduard Tschan-- 962 79 504 29 22
eduard.tschan_at_ifrc.org
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A road map of todays discussion

• Meeting todays challenges
• New trends and increased vulnerability
• An increasingly competitive and visible
  environment
  
• Our institutional ambition in disaster management
  is high
  
• Requires us to improve our disaster management
  by
  
• Developing a Disaster Management Policy and
  Strategy
  
• Strengthening human/financial resources and
  response tools
  
• Ensuring strong disaster management structures

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We must respond to new trends and increased
vulnerabilities

• Climate change Climate change will continue to
  affect weather patterns and increase the number
  of disasters witnessed - particularly water and
  meteorological-related disasters (rain, floods,
  hurricanes, droughts).
• Poverty The uneven effects of globalisation have
  led to increased poverty, poor development,
  under-development and socio-economic
  polarisation.
• Urbanisation As the global urban population
  exceeds the rural one, the challenges of urban
  disaster response and the effects of uncontrolled
  urbanisation on public health must be tackled.
• Migration Displacement from conflict, disasters,
  and poverty is affecting developed and developing
  countries alike. The discrimination, economic
  marginalisation, and lack of social protection of
  migrants must be addressed.
• Health trends Globalisation, aging, climate
  change, urbanisation, and poverty create specific
  health environments, perpetuating public health
  issues. HIV/AIDS, water-related diseases and the
  threat of Human Influenza represent major
  challenges. New, emerging, and re-emerging
  diseases represent greater challenges given the
  failure of health systems to provide health
  services to populations .
• Demographic Shifts Demographic shifts, such as
  the ones caused by aging in developed countries
  and HIV/AIDS in developing countries, will impact
  vulnerabilities and our working environment.
• Vulnerabilities will interact with each other.

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Increased vulnerability is reflected in current
disaster trends
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Factors of vulnerability are reflected in current
disaster trends
Disaster trends reflect these vulnerabilities

• Trends affecting human vulnerability

Source Humanitarian Futures Programme, Survey,
2007
Source IFRC Operations Support Department, 2007
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Developing a Disaster Management Policy and
Strategy Ensuring an integrated approach to
disaster management

• Disaster Mitigation
• Disaster Management Planning
• Organizational Preparedness
• Community preparedness
• Disaster response
• Provide disaster response assistance to meet the
  needs of those people affected by disaster.
  
• Recovery
• Provide assistance to restore or improve
  pre-disaster living conditions and reduce risk of
  disasters.
  
• Disaster risk reduction is mainstreamed
  throughout the disaster management cycle.

Vulnerable Communities Disaster Risk Reduction
Disaster Response Relief Shelter Public Health
in Emerg
Information Managmt
Coordination and Advocacy are consistently
undertaken in support of our DM work.
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Disaster Risk Reduction 2 Priorities

• Global Leadership and Partnership Commitment
• Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction with
  World Bank and ISDR and other partners
  
• RC/RC societies in the MENA region are actively
  involved in defining the Global Appeal on DRR to
  be launched in October 2008
  
• Community based risk reduction
• Applying standardized tools most notably the
  Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment, VCA
  

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VULNERABILITY CAPACITY ASSESSMENT

• What have we learned?
• Achievements challenges
• What is new?

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BACKGROUND

• First version of VCA produced in 1999
• VCA carried out by NS in over 80 countries
• Review underway since 2003

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Methodologies- Review of secondary data-
Community baseline data- Semi-structured
interview- Focus group discussion- Direct
observation- Mapping- Transect walk- Seasonal
calendar- Historical profile-
Household/neighborhood vulnerability assessment-
Livelihoods and coping strategies analysis -
Institutional and social network analysis-
Assessing of people organizations Venn diagram
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Countries implemented VCA studies at National
level- Palestine (2)- Jordan - Syria (2)-
Iraq before the war - AlgeriaCountries
implemented VCA at local level- Yemen -
Morocco - Syria - JordanMicro
projectsYemen road safety, land
slidesMorocco land slides and road
safetySyria environment and road
safetyJordan safe neighborhood
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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

• VCA is a powerful tool for community level
  disaster preparedness and risk reduction
  
• Instrinsically linked to the way people live
• VCA helps us to understand the level of peoples
  exposure to capacity to resist natural hazards
  at the grass-roots level

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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

• People are more often concerned about risks of
  everyday life than about prospect of a big
  disaster (eg malaria, watsan)
  
• Peoples own assessment of risks must be valued
  if we are to succeed
  
• VCA taps into this community knowledge allows
  us to build on their resilience in
  program/project design eg Yemen
  

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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

• Disaster management can be better integrated with
  other projects so that they support each other
  (eg health, watsan) and become mutually
  reinforcing
• Allows us to respond more effectively to local
  peoples concerns while promoting and pursuing
  disaster preparedness activities in community

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ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

• Encourages better participation in DP
• Many NS able to design more successful DP/DM
• Programs
• Disaster risks reduced
• Communities less fatalistic, more pro-active eg
  Nepal
  

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ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

• Outlook of volunteers staff becomes more
  positive when working with people rather than for
  people
  
• Has broadened outlook of a number of NS
• Can re-invigorate branches volunteers
• Identifies gaps or needs beyond RC/RC capacity or
  mandate

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ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

• VCA studies used as a base line for disaster
  response and contingency planning process.
  
• Well trained volunteers in VCA methodologies
• Community based risk reduction projects
  implemented in Yemen, Morocco, Syria and Jordan.
  
• Publication available in five languages1- What
  is VCA2-How to do VCA3-VCA toolbox
  

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CHALLENGES

• Avoid empty VCAs without follow up
• Beyond VCA as an input.the Action Plan is the
  output and the implementation of the Action Plan
  is the result!
  
• Cannot be used to map hazards in every single
  community
  
• Need to avoid stereotyping vulnerability
• May not always succeed as fund-raising strategy
• Need to manage expectations
• Need to work with local partners develop
  advocacy skills
  

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CHALLENGES

• Sustainability of micro projects
• Advocacy and community voice in selling study
  results to relevant stakeholders
  
• Maintaining Human Resources with proper
  incentives
  
• Incorporating local communities initiatives which
  are not part of a VCA scope
  
• Cooperating with grass root organizations
• 1-before conducting the study, 2-during the
  implementation process 3-sharing the results
  4-working in implementing the macro or micro
  projects

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New Trends and Opportunities

• The Regional Disaster Management Unit of the
  International Federations Southeast Asia
  Delegation (RDMU) has undertaken a process to
  analyse the disaster management capacity and
  vulnerability of the eleven countries within
  Southeast Asia (SEA).
• The analysis builds on the traditional practice
  of considering a countries hazard risk and the
  capacity of the Red Cross / Red Crescent National
  Society, to incorporate the wider capacity of
  government and civil society and overall
  development influences. In total 13 indicators
  have been used which cover hazard risk
  vulnerability response capacity and disaster
  risk reduction capacity.
• The analysis and process involved has been based
  on a similar process undertaken by the UN OCHAs
  Asia Pacific regional office.
  

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New Trends and Opportunities

• Hazard Risk
• Potential for natural disasters
• Potential for man-made disasters
• Vulnerability
• Emergency appeal operations
• Natural disaster
• Man-made disaster
• Human Development Index
• Response capacity
• National Government
• Civil society
• Federation
• National Society
• Disaster Risk Reduction Capacity
• National Government
• Civil society
• National Society

IFRC 13 Indicators to analyze disaster
management capacity and vulnerability

Rating S (Indicator 1-13 Multiplier (1-3)
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New Trends and Opportunities

• From global to local partnership
• Track 1 funding for improving and standardizing
  local VCA technologies and analysis?
  
• Track 2 funding and increased partnerships with
  other international and local partners to a)
  scale up community utilization of VCAs and b)
  communities with viable community action plans as
  well as c) more reliable local funding?