Disaster risk management systems analysis
The authors of this guide assert that there are few practical tools to guide the analysis of national, district and local institutions and systems for Disaster Risk management (DRM) - and to conceptualise and provide demand-responsive capacity-building thereafter. The paper states that the lack of tools to analyse the institutional capacities of community-based organisations to participate effectively in the design and implementation of local DRM strategies as well as in the continuous management of hazard threats and/or disaster situations before, during and after their occurrence is of particular concern.
This guide aims to provide a set of tools to assess existing structures and capacities of national, district and local institutions with responsibilities for DRM in order to improve their effectiveness. It looks at this with particular reference to disaster-prone areas and vulnerable sectors and population groups. The guide is broken into six modules looking at; definitions and conceptual framework; planning an institutional assessment of DRM systems; assessing DRM’s at the national, district and community level; and analysing and interpreting the data.
Some of the key findings and recommendations include:
- institutions play a key role in operationalising the different phases of the DRM framework and mediating the link between development, DRM and humanitarian actions
- institutional inter-linkages are crucially important in the context of DRM. Disasters affect societies across sectors and socio-economic groups, although some may be more vulnerable. Both immediate response operations and longer-term DRM strategies require effective cross-sectoral planning and implementation mechanisms
- horizontal and vertical linkages between and within institutions are therefore vital to integrate and coordinate actions of different sectors and stakeholders and to ensure coherence across governance levels.
