Review
of 8 MDGs’ relevance for disaster risk reduction and vice-versa
GOAL
1: Eradicating
extreme poverty and hunger
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Extreme poverty
and hunger have many consequences for the human condition in general
and also specifically in relation to disaster risk reduction. These
broadly include increasing the likelihood of populations living
in more hazard prone areas, having less protection against disaster
impact, lowering coping capacity during and after the hazardous
event, severely hampering the recovery period, as well as negating
many of the development gains achieved prior to the event integrating
disaster risk assessment in poverty planning tools like Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) - in the same way as environmental
assessment is integrated in development planning - would ensure
strengthening this nexus. However only 8 (Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique
and Bangladesh ,Vietnam, Pakistan, Bolivia) of the 32 completed
PRSPs were identified by the World Bank Hazard Management Unit
as incorporating aspects of DRR. The DFID report provides practical
guidance to donors as entry points into the PRSP and UNDAF processes
for integrating DRR:
1) Collaborating
with World Bank Hazard Management Unit
2) Technical Advice to Governments on opportunities for integrating DRR
in PRSPs
3) Funding for DRR initiatives in PRSPs
UNDP and
the ISDR Secretariat are spearheading the development of a
common guidance note on how to integrate DRR in the Common
Country Assessment (CCA) and United Nations Development Assistance
Framework (UNDAF) processes by applying risk assessment, developing
alternative scenarios and involving ISDR National Platforms
in the process of preparing CCAs and UNDAFs.
The provision of risk/loss spreading mechanisms for those excluded from
insurance cover is a critical intervention to ensure that eradicating
extreme poverty is harmonized with reducing risk of potential losses
from disasters like drought, floods, cyclones and earthquakes.
INDIA:
Micro-finance helps spread risk for the poor
In India, women’s high level of self-organization at local
level enables partnerships between women’s groups and private
and public organizations engaged in risk reduction and disaster response.
The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union
registered in 1972 to represent low-income women workers in India’s
vast informal sector, is a case in point. To protect its membership
against risks such as unemployment, poverty, natural disasters and
sickness, SEWA offers its members a variety of micro insurance packages.
Under a basic scheme, members can secure insurance against hospitalisation
for up to US$ 43, house and asset insurance for up to US$ 110, and
accidental death insurance for US$ 870. The cost of this package,
which also offers benefits against natural death and the accidental
death of one’s husband, is a fixed deposit US$ 22 and an annual
premium of US$ 1.85. More expensive schemes offer more protection
against natural death, hospitalisation and loss of house and assets.
Over 10 years, 2,000 women have received some US$ 327,400 in claims.
SEWA has regularly assisted its members, mostly women with marginal
incomes from small farms or handicrafts, to spread the risk of income
losses from draughts and cyclones through insurance and micro-finance
measures.
In the aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, SEWA was instrumental
in providing insurance benefits and micro-finance to regenerate destroyed
livelihoods, homes, and working capital and assets. Within two weeks,
SEWA’s insurance team surveyed over 2,500 insured members’ claims
of damage and asset loss, mainly destruction of houses. Working closely
with local associations in the three worst-affected districts, the
insurance team carefully documented asset losses.
SEWA, Jivika : Livelihood Security Project for Earthquake affected
rural households in Gujarat
http://www.sewa.org/ and http://www.sewainsurance.org/ |
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GOAL
2: Achieving universal primary education
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Education
is one the preconditions for human development – for broadening
choices and for the realization of human potential. As such, it
is also one of the principal means for lessening human vulnerability.
Disaster occurrences greatly hamper the education process in many
ways, with human loss and injury, social upheaval, school property
damage and closings, and often with children having to leave school
for long periods in the recovery period - their families needing
their help in meeting basic needs. Some of these children will
not get another change to attend school, which deepens the vicious
cycle of educational lack and vulnerability.
The massive infusion of international development assistance to fulfil
the commitment to get in school 100 million school-aged children who presently
do not attend takes no account of the seismic safety of the old schools
and new ones that will be built to accommodate these children (Ben Wisner
et al., School
Seismic Safety: Falling Between the Cracks, 2004)
However, many best practices exist on how DRR can be integrated in attaining
the MDG related to primary education.
More
seismic-safe schools built all over the world
In many earthquakes around the world, school buildings which were
not built as per hazard resistant standards collapsed, causing
severe setback to primary education.
- Skopje,
Yugoslavia, 1963 – 44 schools destroyed (57% of school
building stock)
- El Asnam,
Algeria, 1989 – 70-85 schools collapsed or were severely
damaged
- Pereira,
Colombia, 1999 – 74% of schools damaged
- Xinjiang,
China, 2003 – dozens of schools collapsed
- Boumerdes,
Algeria, 2003 – 130 schools suffered extensive to complete
damage
However,
many countries like Turkey, Colombia, India and Indonesia are
learning from past experiences and are incorporating seismic
safety standards into newer constructions consistent with hazard
risks. The table from National Reports and Best Practice Public
Forum at the January 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction
in Kobe, Japan, illustrates a few examples.
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GOAL
3: Promoting gender equality and empowering women
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During and after
disasters, women play a primary role in providing assistance to
the family and community in disaster prevention activities. They
are frequently, disproportionately and negatively affected by disaster
impact and can also face targeted gender-based violence and exploitation
in the aftermath of disasters. Women are often left out of formal
planning and decision making, and marginalized from community authority.
As such, their needs and concerns are many times overlooked, as
their profound contributions frequently go unrecognized.
UNDP-BCPR (Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery) calls for “enabling
women to confront disaster risk”, adding that “reforms in land
and dwelling ownership, inheritance and employment rights are likely to
be as important as the needs to strengthen the social justice concerns
of women in accessing health, education and legal services.”
Country
Practices :Promoting gender equality and empowering women through
disaster risk reduction
In Armenia
NGO’s such as “Women for Development” (National
Survey for Seismic Protection) have been working towards including
seismic protection courses in the school curriculum. They have
promoted inclusion of education games and enhancing women’s
participation as specialists in spheres where men dominate
greatly (in disaster survey, academic field, emergency service,
civil protection etcetera).
In the Punjab
, Pakistan, local fairs and festivals called “Sakhi melas” or
Festivals of Women are held. These fairs provide opportunities
for women living in the riverine areas to share social concerns
with fellow women and to discuss whether their demands to the
local government have been met. The use of different means
of self expression such as skits at these festivals provided
tremendous scope for integrating disaster related messages.
The example reiterates the fact that in areas where literacy
levels are low, disaster reduction awareness also needs to
be tailored to take into account the specific contexts of its
target audience. Therefore, incorporating DRR awareness into
popular modes of expression such as theatre, drama, poetry
and story-telling have proved effective communication methods.
In 2001 and
2003, EIRD, OPS-OMS, PNUD and CEPREDENAC collaborated in a
DRR programme that used a radio soap opera as a gender balanced
risk awareness tool at the community level. The radio programme
used non-sexist language and incorporated language and story-lines
that were consciously targeted at women. Lower costs and accessibility
to regions where conventional means of communication were absent
were important factors in choosing the radio as a means of
disseminating information. The programme was broadcast across
46 community radio stations including Panamá, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and over
the internet based Radio Feminista Internacional in Costa Rica.
http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/thematic-sessions/cluster3.htm
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GOAL
4: Reducing child mortality (children below the age
of five)
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Infants and young children are among the most vulnerable segments of any
given population. In the aftermath of disasters, interrupted basic
infrastructure, stretched emergency and health care facilities, the
outbreak of disease epidemics, and the loss or injury of care givers
and income earners make young children even more susceptible to physical
and emotional trauma. |
GOAL
5: Improving maternal health
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In households
where basic needs are hardly met, the pressure of post-disaster
impact can eliminate the possibility of adequate maternal care
as stretched resources can only cover immediate survival requirements.
Additionally, in many cases, gender inequity gives women less access
to household income and assets. Disaster risk reduction efforts
that include gender issues at the outset have proven necessary
in addressing the improvement of maternal health. |
GOAL
6: Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
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HIV/AIDS, malaria
and other diseases of epidemic proportions make infected populations
more vulnerable in all circumstances. In the wake of disaster impact,
their vulnerability is further increased. Economically and socially
marginalized and usually highly disadvantaged infected populations
often suffer even greater impact during the event, and in its aftermath,
than others in their community. With basic infrastructure being
damaged and interrupted, water-borne and insect vector diseases
can escalate rapidly, which severely hampers recovery and development
efforts, thus making a community even more vulnerable than before
the event. Additionally, overburdened health care facilities can
make regular treatments impossible, with food and medical shortages
further exacerbating the situation.
HIV/AIDS
Control and DRR: A Common Agenda in Southern
Africa
Due to its enormous social and economic impacts on communities,
HIV/AIDS constitutes a major vulnerability factor for other natural
hazards. In particular, HIV/AIDS exacerbates vulnerability to drought
conditions. The situation is very critical in Southern Africa,
facing catastrophic consequences of HIV/AIDS infection. With many
countries recording adult HIV infection rates of 25-30 per cent,
the 1990s have seen the deaths of thousands of skilled people occupying
middle-management positions in the private and public sectors.
Precious opportunities to develop sustainable local and technical
capacities in disaster risk reduction have been undermined by continuing
HIV-related deaths. With its far-reaching effects that span all
professions, social sectors and communities in Southern Africa,
HIV/AIDS will continue to constitute a major aspect of both household
and national vulnerability for the foreseeable future.
Adapted from “Living
with Risk”, UN/ISDR, 2004
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GOAL
7: Ensuring environmental sustainability
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The link between
environmental degradation and disaster occurrence and impact is
well documented. Deforestation and soil erosion increase mudslides,
landslides and flash flooding. Desertification increases drought.
Climate change and variability is one of the causal factors of
extreme weather events. These connections are well recognized,
even though they are not fully understood yet. Degradation of the
resource base leads directly to less access to resource-based livelihoods,
migration to marginal and often more hazard-prone areas, rural-urban
migration - often into increasingly more vulnerable urban slums.
It also affects the natural resilience and recovery period of a
given environment to extreme events. As echoed by the UNDP publication
entitled “Reducing Disaster Risk”, strategies to enhance
environmental sustainability, like prior environmental impact assessments
of all developmental projects, participatory management of biodiversity
and ecosystem resources like forest, wildlife and natural watersheds,
contribute to breaking the chain of accumulated risk. There are
many good practices which can be applied widely.
Ensuring
environmental sustainability in Bangladesh
Soil anchoring practices, mangrove protection programmes and the
Bangladesh Coastal Greenbelt Project undertaken by the Bangladesh
Ministry of Environment and Forests seek to:
- Prevent
loss of life and damage to property by
cyclones, storms and associated tidal surges;
- Protect
and improve the coastal environment through
increased vegetation;
- Help
alleviate poverty by generating income
through increased tree cover and related
activities;
- Increase
forest resources;
- Increase
coastal embankment stability;
- Establish
industries based on forest plantation;
- Increase
multiple uses for land;
- Create
popular awareness on sustainable forest
management.
MDG
# 1 idea of “Change Agents” -
people who are trained in disseminating disaster
awareness and knowledge through community,
family and people-based early warning systems
and who are also trained in first aid - ensured
the safeguarding of livelihoods against frequent
floods and cyclones.
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GOAL
8: Developing a global partnership for development
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Mainstreaming
disaster risk reduction continues to gain momentum at all levels
with development efforts increasingly including risk reduction
considerations – and with risk reduction initiatives also
further incorporating wider development viewpoints. The World Summit
for Sustainable Development (WSSD) process now formally links disaster
risk reduction with global development efforts as do the national,
regional and global meetings of the Programme of Action for Small
Island Developing States (SIDS), which include nation-states highly
susceptible to many hazardous events, and which historically have
suffered high disaster impact. Continued and further interconnection
of disaster risk reduction and sustainable development agendas
at local, national, regional and global levels remain a critical
and mutually beneficial target.
The
UNDP on MDG 8 “Global Partnerships
for Development Change”
The most important components of this goal relate to trade, debt
relief and aid. Success rests to a large extent on the willingness
of developed countries to meet their commitments. The 2001 Ministerial
Meeting of the WTO (World Trade Organization) in Doha placed the
needs and interests of the developing countries at the heart of
WTO negotiations. However, in 2003, the subsequent stalemate in
the Cancun round of WTO negotiations showed greater political will,
collaborative thinking and action is required at the international
level to allow developing countries to trade on a level playing
field.
More progress has been made in debt relief under the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Some 26 countries have now entered
this process. The HIPC process is reinforced by international financial
agencies that have integrated disaster lending into their portfolios.
Official Development Assistance (ODA) climbed in 2002 after nearly
a decade in decline, but remains well below the target of 0.7 percent
of donor countries’ GDP. The amount of money provided for
emergency and distress relief is small, fluctuating in response
to annual crises. However, as a proportion of ODA, emergency and
distress relief has steadily increased from 1.9 percent in 1986
to 3.2 percent in 1991, reaching a peak of 7.8 percent in 1999
and since declining to 6.3 percent in 2001. Within this percentage,
the ODA oriented towards disaster risk management remains minimal.
ISDR has succeeded in building regional and international partnerships
for disaster risk reduction and in disseminating good practice.
Similarly, negotiations around the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change) most recently focused on the Kyoto
Protocol, also provide a focus for international attention that
can directly address the concerns of disaster risk reduction.
Source: Reducing
Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development
United Nations Development Programme
Bureau for Crisis Prevention
and Recovery
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The UN Millennium
Project on MDGs
The report entitled Investing
in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals lays
out practical plans for achieving MDGs by 2015. Its main focus is on obtaining
international commitment and donor resources for scaling up country plans to
achieve MDGs by 2015. DRR issues are prioritised within a category of countries
vulnerable to natural hazards. Vulnerability to natural hazards like quakes,
cyclones and floods, is cited under Adverse Geographical conditions. However,
the analysis of both vulnerability to disasters as a retardant in achieving
MDGs and steps necessary for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction within MDG
efforts is somewhat limited. For example, the report mentions that countries
in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly southern Africa, are unlikely to attain
MDGs at the current pace, but vulnerabilities to disasters (drought, floods)
are not explored in depth, even though all of these intervene in depressing
livelihood and keeping countries in poverty traps.
Even though
significant progress has been made in some countries, China and India,
which are growing rapidly and are therefore likely to attain the MDGs,
have reported that they have not significantly reduced their underlying
disaster risks. Hence attainment of MDGs in these countries may be adversely
affected: frequent disasters may cause developmental losses and downward
spiral of incomes for many vulnerable groups. To address this, China’s
National MDG Report identifies disasters as a critical constraint in
the path of attaining MDG 1.
The Millennium Report recommends a five-fold strategy for reducing losses from
disasters:
- Strategies to
reduce disaster losses need to be mainstreamed in PRSPs;
- Infrastructure
investment to incorporate DRR;
- Social safety
nets for the vulnerable, particularly through Government provisions;
- Early warning
capacities and information campaigns supported by Governments;
- Pre-crisis emergency
and contingency planning.
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