Resilience or relief: Canada's response to global disasters

Abstract

As disasters are poised to increase in scope and frequency, it is appropriate and timely to examine the Canadian government's approach to the humanitarian challenge of global disasters through the lens of Canada's commitments to global disaster risk reduction. This article will argue, in accordance with the broad principles of disaster risk reduction (DRR) elaborated through the UNISDR process, that Canada's disaster response should pay greater attention to the need for resilience. Resilience-oriented assistance is tasked with helping communities to reduce vulnerabilities and risk by preparing for future disasters. Although it is not incompatible with relief, an orientation of resilience does contrast with one of relief in terms of the allocation of resources, the involvement of local authorities, and the underlying purpose of disaster response. Canada's recent response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is used to analyse the way in which disasters are framed in Canadian foreign policy, the way in which competing frames affect the provision of disaster assistance, and the effects of this framing on the recipients of disaster assistance.