Communication strategies on risk and disaster management in South American countries

Abstract

Planned communication is widely recognized as a fundamental tool for risk and disaster management (RDM). This study aimed to analyze the communication strategy of RDM systems in the context of seven Spanish-speaking countries of South America (sscSA), specifically: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. This involved the review of 29 documents related to RDM planning. This study is part of a larger research project called Integral communication system in critical events which have previous results already published. The computer-assisted qualitative data analysis methodology was used to analyze the textual corpus. The qualitative analysis was complemented with statistical models such as principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. A total of 203 ideas for good communication were identified and classified into five components: i) early communication planning, ii) information and communication system management planning, iii) communication and communicator quality management planning, iv) RDM awareness raising, and v) stakeholder consolidation. Ecuador, Chile and Paraguay correlated mostly with pre-disaster communication. Colombia and Bolivia correlated with communication during a disaster. While post-disaster communication was not well represented in sscSA planning.