Children and Disaster Risk Reduction: Building Resilience from Education, Local Government Units, and Communities

Abstract

This chapter is based on an independent and follow-up study on integrated child-centered disaster risk reduction and management (IC-DRRM) programs and activities of the Department of Education, concerned local government units (LGUs), and select communities in Bohol, Philippines, that were the project-implementing partners of the School-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in the Philippines. Adopting the insider and outsider perspectives of doing qualitative research provide an in-depth and objective analysis in examining whether the project interventions during the Bohol earthquake post-disaster response and partners’ initiatives are sustained and/or scaled up that promote resilience among children and communities. Results of the study demonstrate the synergies, child participation, and how the Department of Education, the two pilot LGUs (Maribojoc and Loon), and their communities have adopted and scaled up to sustain an integrated child-centered DRRM as they move forward in resilience building. The conclusion underscores the much-needed IC-DRRM and resilience building and its requisites for safer and resilient schools and communities and ‘disaster risk proofing development’ towards sustainable development.