The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction takes place every year on 13 October. The day marks how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of reducing the risks that they face. This year, the theme focuses on enhancing international cooperation with developing countries through adequate and sustainable support. We discussed this with several DR specialists and invite you to have a look at their responses in the article below.
What is currently lacking in national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction?
“The current COVID-19 crisis has revealed that the world is not well prepared for the occurrence of chemical, bacteriological, virological, etc. disasters. This situation is most evident in developing countries, especially in Africa. Many countries in Africa do not yet have complete diagnoses of the risks, the probability of their occurrence, and the severity of their impacts. As a result, in some countries on the continent, contingency plans do not exist in certain areas and, when they do exist, they are not very operational in terms of applicability. Very often they remain in the pipeline because the operationalization measures are not effective. In addition, in most cases, simulation exercises are not organized, and the populations themselves are not informed or prepared to live with the risks they face. Early warning systems do not exist or are inoperative. Regarding COVID-19, it was noted that a) many countries do not have the technical and scientific means to detect the virus (to test); b) the continent does not have the industrial capacity to produce masks and vaccines; c) the capacity of health structures (resuscitation beds) is very low; d) the first measures taken are rarely adapted to the local context (sociological and anthropological aspects: for example, containment is not very appropriate for a population that lives mostly in an informal economy).”
“The national and local disaster risk reduction strategies lack proper planning in terms of early warning mechanisms, disaster response mechanisms, trained expertise as well as outreach mechanisms. This is further exacerbated by the failure to have an assigned fund to cater for disasters as well as to train experts based on the absence of disaster as well as the failure to experience or even anticipate disaster occurrences.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a global health crisis and demanded a quick, decisive, and efficient response by governments to protect lives, curb the spread of the virus, and prevent public health systems from being overwhelmed. Even though countries have their national emergency response systems and mechanisms to manage the crisis, the pandemic has changed, and will continue to change, the world and the way we work, and challenged the practicality of the existing disaster risk reduction strategies. In response, most countries have set up an incident management system to support readiness actions for an emergency and implemented lockdown measures given the imminent threat of the spread of COVID-19.”
What has been your most challenging experience related to disaster reduction?
“My most challenging experience was in the development of agricultural and health insurance products and their extension to farmers and herders in Senegal. The work was very challenging because it involved building the resilience of farmers and herders to hazards in the Sahel (drought and livestock mortality) not through assistance (subsidies) but through the development of fee-based services (insurance) as a means of disaster risk reduction. However, several difficulties had to be overcome before appreciable results were achieved. For example, the provision of traditional agricultural insurance requires the deployment of a field system (agricultural technicians) and several trips (to and from the field). These two aspects make it difficult for small, dispersed producers with small areas to make a profit. In addition, human intervention in the process of recording and assessing the loss leads to the possibility of subjectivity and lack of integrity of the system. This leads to a problem of trust on both sides, both for the farmers and the insurer. For all these reasons, the results in terms of subscriptions were not great. It was necessary to move towards the development of index-based crop loss insurance in order to achieve mass subscriptions and the profitability of this insurance allowing CNAAS (National Agricultural Insurance Company of Senegal) to record positive results. In the case of livestock mortality insurance, in addition to the difficulties mentioned above for traditional agricultural insurance, the phasing of visits to nomadic herders (several unsuccessful visits) was also a problem. In addition, small-scale livestock farmers, for whom the program is designed, were of little interest to the private veterinarians who are the providers of this insurance. To date, a relevant, innovative and viable solution has yet to be found for small-scale livestock farmers living in areas far from services.”
“The lack of funds to support disaster planning, response, or even disaster outreach events is one of the greatest challenges. In most cases, failure to have frequent disasters has led to slow investment, planning, or even a disaster fund to take care of even emergency disaster occurrences. For example, with COVID-19, most developing countries have responded through donations and financial interventions from developed countries.”
“An overstretched public healthcare system forces millions of people to turn to the unregulated private healthcare sector. The implementation of lockdown measures has threatened people’s rights, complicated existing challenges and could revive or exacerbate social and political tensions against the backdrop of a continent-wide economic downturn.”
Which policies should be adopted by the international community to improve disaster reduction?
“Economically and socially, the COVID-19 pandemic has been frightening for the whole world. Many flaws in national and global disaster risk reduction policies have been revealed. However, it is also a great opportunity to learn from our mistakes and build stronger disaster prevention systems in the bacteriological and virological fields. For example, it would be very relevant for international security to: a) provide support mechanisms for the least developed countries to diagnose the risks of disasters in the field of health and to develop appropriate and realistic contingency plans; b) promote the emergence of high-level regional research centers in developing countries, in Africa, in particular, to work on local risks with international repercussions (Ebola, COVID-19, Marburg virus, etc.) and the Institut Pasteur of Dakar is a relevant example; c) strengthen the vaccine industry in Africa given the difficulties of access noted despite orders from African countries to Western firms either within the framework of the COVAX mechanism or unilaterally; d) help low-income countries raise their technical platforms to deal with major health crises such as COVID-19, Ebola, etc. through subsidies and appropriate financing mechanisms (long-term).”
“The international community needs to invest and strengthen early warning mechanisms in policy work to ensure strengthened systems when it comes to planning for disasters and even responses. The international community similarly needs to strengthen the multi-sectoral response in their policy work to ensure that many actors come together to form alliances that can enhance disaster response in terms of expertise, funding, policy analysis and review as well as capacity building.”
“António Guterres said that “In a global crisis, we must meet the expectations of those we serve with unity, solidarity, and coordinated multilateral global action”. To deal with such a global health crisis, there is a need to develop a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to advance pandemic preparedness and propose new infrastructure and investments at the national and global levels.”
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