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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