Implementing Disaster Risk Reduction Research Articles

Challenges to disaster risk management in The Gambia: A preliminary investigation of the disaster management system's structure

The alarming increase in the scale and incidence of disasters around the world has been largely attributed to global climate change. Africa like other continents has also experienced its share of disaster, though not on the same scale as countries in Asia, while the scale of disasters in Africa is smaller, the effects on the population is devastating due in large part to the high level of vulnerability in African countries. The Gambia is no exception and is also prone to numerous hazardous events that are exacerbated by lack of capacity in implementing disaster risk reduction measures. The Gambia is in a position to decentralize the government in addition to implement newly created developmental goals. One of these goals is to enhance the nation's disaster risk management system. As such, this paper provides the results of a preliminary investigation of The Gambia's disaster risk management system, with a focus on its organizational structure. Using an action research approach and through the analysis of an online survey and semi-structured interviews with disaster management leadership, this study finds that the current institutional structure of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) should be enhanced to promote more efficient and effective management practices. As a result, a new national institutional structure is proposed that reduces political and administrative inefficiencies at the same time as pursuing the nation's new developmental goals and vision.

Disaster Risk in Central Asia: Socio-Economic Vulnerability Context and Pilot-Study of Multi-Risk Assessment in a Remote Mountain Area of Kyrgyz Republic

The Kyrgyz Republic, as well as other countries of Central Asia, is highly exposed to natural-environmental hazards, which continues undermining efforts to achieve sustainable development. National disaster risk assessment procedures in Central Asian countries are mainly based on the evaluation of hazards without a detailed analysis of vulnerability and resilience. Additionally, the available practices of hazard assessments are mostly based on a zone-by-zone approach, which would make it difficult to develop a comparative assessment of facilities located in the same hazard zone. This situation hampers the efforts of the local governments to effectively plan and implement disaster risk reduction (DRR) actions when they cannot differentiate the individual facilities according to the risk level in order to focus the existing capacity (which is usually very limited) on increasing the resilience and reducing the vulnerability of the facilities with the highest risk. For improvement of DRR practices, the quantitative comprehensive approach of risk analysis applied in this study is used for risk assessment of educational institutions in one of the most seismically active and most disaster-prone mountain regions of Central Asia - the Alay valley, a wide intermontane valley situated in between the two biggest mountain systems in Asia: Tian Shan and Pamir. The developed multidisciplinary study suggests that the quantitative multi-risk assessment approach - can play a crucial role in understanding risks and can significantly improve the quality of disaster risk reduction planning.

Disaster Risk in Central Asia: Socio-Economic Vulnerability Context and Pilot-Study of Multi-Risk Assessment in a Remote Mountain Area of Kyrgyz Republic

The Kyrgyz Republic, as well as other countries of Central Asia, is highly exposed to natural-environmental hazards, which continues undermining efforts to achieve sustainable development. National disaster risk assessment procedures in Central Asian countries are mainly based on the evaluation of hazards without a detailed analysis of vulnerability and resilience. Additionally, the available practices of hazard assessments are mostly based on a zone-by-zone approach, which would make it difficult to develop a comparative assessment of facilities located in the same hazard zone. This situation hampers the efforts of the local governments to effectively plan and implement disaster risk reduction (DRR) actions when they cannot differentiate the individual facilities according to the risk level in order to focus the existing capacity (which is usually very limited) on increasing the resilience and reducing the vulnerability of the facilities with the highest risk. For improvement of DRR practices, the quantitative comprehensive approach of risk analysis applied in this study is used for risk assessment of educational institutions in one of the most seismically active and most disaster-prone mountain regions of Central Asia - the Alay valley, a wide intermontane valley situated in between the two biggest mountain systems in Asia: Tian Shan and Pamir. The developed multidisciplinary study suggests that the quantitative multi-risk assessment approach - can play a crucial role in understanding risks and can significantly improve the quality of disaster risk reduction planning.

Building volcanic disaster resilience community through school and education

School has a significant role in building community resilience since school has the responsibility to deliver knowledge and science in a one hand, and has the capacity to implement disaster risk reduction education in the other hand. Having more than eighty schools located in volcanic disaster prone areas, Merapi volcano is one of the most densely populated volcanoes in the world. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of schools in implementing disaster risk reduction education through a program entitled Sister School and to 1nalyse teachers’ and pupils’ knowledge and experience on volcanic disaster and risk reduction awareness program. In addition, this research tries to 1nalyse their acceptance towards this disaster resilience program. This research was conducted in two schools located in a volcanic prone area, one as affected school and one as supporting school. The results showed that schools located in the highest volcanic prone area participate in the Sister School program. Most of teachers and pupils of the affected school and supporting school have good knowledge on volcanic disaster since most of them experienced the 2010 Merapi volcanic eruption and participated different volcanic risk reduction awareness programs. Teachers and pupils have positive acceptance towards sister school program.

Factors Contributing for Livestock Excessive Mortality in Borana Pastoralist Area: Signal for Leadership and Disaster Risk Management Policy of Ethiopia

Livestock production is one of major mainstay in pastoralist area. In order to keep its livestock, pastoralist applies traditional drought coping mechanism. Currently Government of Ethiopia addressing drought disaster in the area of pastoralist by implementing disaster risk reduction management policy. However there are excessive livestock mortality in pastoralist area of Ethiopia specially Borana. The objective of this paper is to find out factors contributing for excessive livestock mortality in the pastoralist area and analyze its signals for Ethiopian National disaster risk management policy implementation of pastoralist areas. The main data for this research come from primary and secondary sources. The research use mixed method to collect and analyze data. Data collecting tools were questionnaire, key informant interview, focused group discussion, observation and document review. The finding of the study portray that lack of awareness of pastoralist to manage the quality of livestock, lack proper attention for pastoralist, lack of animal health facilities in the adjacent area of pastoralist production, outbreak of livestock disease, inadequate pasture land because of expansion of farming land and tribal conflict, failure of traditional coping mechanisms such as mobility, failure of early warning system and absence of livestock marketing in the pastoralist area are contributing for excessive livestock mortality in the area. This research conclude that current disaster risk management policy implementers and leadership able to consider the extension works intensively to raise the awareness of the community to sell their livestock before serious drought period, due attention for causes of pastoralists and pastoralist centered policy, expand animal health facilities in relation with livestock population, deploy necessary animal health technician in the area, introduce and increase vaccination, support traditional coping mechanisms, work on tribal conflict prevention and intervene by proper and just livestock marketing. Key w ords: Borana, Leadership, Disaster, Livestock, Pastoralist, Policy DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-2-04 Publication date: February 29 th 2020

Challenges to Implement Disaster Risk Reduction in Schools of Developing Country: Study on Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Disaster has become a frequent phenomenon in today’s world and is affecting many worlds’ population. The urban areas are highly vulnerable to hazards as urban population is increasing rapidly. Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is in high risk of earthquake, fire hazards, water logging etc. The study has been carried out to ascertain the challenges to implement the Disaster Risk Reduction in the schools of Dhaka city focusing the urban disaster such as earthquake and fire hazard. DRR integration in education system has ensured safe school facility for school going children as well as reducing the risk of community through school-community cooperation. This study follows the Comprehensive Global School Safety Framework, (GADRRRES) to find out the school preparedness and emergency management plan. Mixed method was carried out to collect and analysis data from students, their parents, teachers and staff about the condition of the DRR practices in education, plans and the challenges to implement DRR through FGD, semi-structured questionnaire survey. SWOT analysis has been conducted to understand the current condition of DRR practice in schools of Dhaka city. It has been observed that the respondents have little knowledge about DRR, and most of the schools don’t have enough DRR practice and plan. Although DRR is integrated in curricula, the schools do not practice DRR exercises and trainings. A school management plan has been proposed to improve the current condition; thereby the schools of Dhaka city can be prepared for future disaster.

Construction Industry Ignorance to Disaster Risk Reduction

Although experts have identified ignorance as one of the problems in implementing disaster risk reduction, studies on this subject are still relatively small. This paper aims to explore the concept of ignorance about disaster management and construction project management. Ignorance arises as a result of differences in characteristics between disaster management and infrastructure project management about disasters. Disaster management focuses on the issue of uncertainty while construction project management is accustomed to ensuring everything through detailed calculations to optimize limited resources. In contrast, construction project management handles problems through short or medium term solutions while disaster management usually talks about long-term and continuous programs. These differences lead to different perspectives and create mental-blocked for construction industry players to implement disaster risk reduction. Ignorance is also influenced by personal factors, namely motivation and intention. Motivation can be either internal or external. The internal motivation is related to personal pleasure, interest, comfort, and satisfaction while the external one is related to somebody’s efforts to achieve specific goals, getting awards, avoiding punishment or other negative consequences. This paper shows that currently the relationship between the construction industry management and disaster management focuses more on technical and policy aspects. That is the reason why this paper suggests that construction industry player also needs to learn about human behaviors in order to understand the conflicts that might arise between the two due to the personal factors of the actors. These three subjects are similarly essential and complementary to each other. Ignorance to disaster risk reduction is a product of human behavior. Therefore, ignoring the human-interest subject will make the construction industry player having difficulties in implementing disaster risk reduction concept.

Tropical cyclone risk perception and risk reduction analysis for coastal Bangladesh: Household and expert perspectives

Risk assessment as well as risk perceptions play a vital role in disaster risk reduction through formulating and implementing disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies and interventions. This study, which was conducted in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, aims to: firstly, analyze actual versus perceived cyclone risk at household level in the coastal communities of Bangladesh; secondly, investigate experts' perceptions of perceived cyclone risk; and thirdly, explore cyclone risk reduction (CRR) strategies from both expert and household perspectives. An extensive survey consisting of face-to-face questionnaire surveys and site observation was undertaken in the southern coastal areas of Bangladesh. Both actual and perceived risk values varied significantly among the three study areas (Lalua, Burigoalini and Koyra). These risks vary according to participants' income, occupation, farm size, gender, geographical location, and educational attainment/qualification. Results indicate the average level of perceived risk is high both at the household and expert level. Female participants perceive slightly higher risk than males in coastal Bangladesh. This survey advocates some cyclone risk reduction (CRR) measures, as follows: build more cyclone shelters and cyclone resilient privately owned houses; build or improve embankments and polders; build or improve roads; preserve dry food; supply adequate food and pure drinking water; and improve the quality of early warning messages or alarms. This study concludes that risk perception assessment is a prerequisite for implementing any risk reduction plan or strategy, and it is critical to integrate bottom-up and top-down approaches for CRR plans and actions.

Botswana and international policies on the inclusion of disaster risk reduction in the school curriculum: Exploring the missing link

This paper is based on the research study that focused on Botswana's compliance with international Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policies, regional policies and its own policies on DRR education. It specifically sought to explore and understand the missing link in between Botswana's policy direction and international policies on the inclusion of Disaster Risk Reduction in the school curriculum. Located within the interpretivist philosophy and based on a case study research design, a mixed method approach using 30 teachers drawn from twelve schools, and two key informants who are the focal points at the National Disaster Management Office and Curriculum Development Unit was adopted. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to teachers and key informants respectively. The study finds that policy, augmented by the availability of resources and skills would play an important role in integrating disaster risk reduction education in Botswana's primary school curriculum. It also found that having an education policy that embeds disaster issues may help to consolidate communities' capacities to cope with disasters, as children are good information disseminators. To that end the paper concludes and argues that without political will and a strong engagement of key stakeholders in the drafting of the policy, the prospects of implementing disaster risk reduction integration into the education curriculum are weak.

A status quo analysis of disaster risk reduction policy and legislation in Cameroon

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the status quo of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy and legislation in Cameroon.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative method, this paper examines historical data from sectoral administrative reports, plans, declarations, commitments and speeches, texts and peer-reviewed journals on disaster and risk management in Cameroon for the period 1967-2017. Empirical data from ten selected government sectors were used to analyze the status quo, together with quantitative data collected by using four instruments (i.e. HFA Priority 1 & 4, USAID Toolkit, GOAL Resilience Score and the Checklist on Law and DRR).FindingsFindings show that Cameroon largely still practices disaster response through the Department of Civil Protection. Transparency and accountability are the sine qua non of the state, but the lack thereof causes improper implementation of DRR within development institutions. DRR is seen as an ad hoc activity, with the result that there is not effective institutional capacity for implementation. The need to develop a new national DRR framework is evident.Originality/valueAnalyzing the status quo of DRR in Cameroon could assist with the review and reevaluation of a new DRR framework within the Cameroonian territory.

The readiness of special school teachers in Padang City in the implementation of disaster risk reduction learning for students with hearing impairments

This study intends to describe and analyze the readiness of teachers in the implementation of learning disaster risk reduction for students with hearing impairments in Padang city, which consists of several aspects, including: characteristics, planning, implementation, and assessment of learning process outcomes. This type of research is quantitative descriptive research, with a sample of twenty-four teachers who educate students hearing impairments, and the instruments used in this study is a Likert scale questionnaire. The results showed that teachers are less prepared in the implementation of learning disaster risk reduction for students with hearing loss, especially on aspects of characteristics learning and plan to learn. Seen from a low percentage, but on aspects of implementation learning and assessment of teacher learning process, outcomes are ready in implementing learning disaster risk reduction for students with hearing impairments.

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Earth Observation Actionable Information Supporting Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts in a Sustainable Development Framework

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a high priority on the agenda of main stakeholders involved in sustainable development, and earth observation (EO) can provide useful, timely, and economical information in this context. This short communication outlines the European Space Agency’s (ESA) specific initiative to promote the use and uptake of satellite data in the global development community: Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD). One activity area under EO4SD is devoted to disaster risk reduction (EO4SD DRR). Within this project, a team of European companies and institutions are tasked to develop EO services for supporting the implementation of DRR in International Financial Institutions’ (IFI) projects. Integration of satellite-borne data and ancillary data to generate insight and actionable information is thereby considered a key factor for improved decision-making. To understand and fully account for the essential user requirements (IFI and client states), engagement with technical leaders is crucial. Fit-for-purpose use of data and comprehensive capacity building eventually ensure scalability and long-term transferability. Future perspectives of EO4SD and DRR regarding mainstreaming are also highlighted.

Implementation of disaster risk reduction and management policies in a school setting in Lao PDR: a case study

BackgroundLao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) formulated the National Strategic Plan for Disaster Risk Management to reduce risks to the communities. This plan was eventually integrated into the school curriculum, but its implementation has never been evaluated. This study aimed to clarify the present situation to inform better implementation strategies on disaster risk reduction and management in a school setting focused on fire disasters in Lao PDR.MethodsA case study was conducted in Vientiane and five provinces in 2017. Key informant interviews were conducted among 52 policy implementers from the Disaster Management Committee (DMC), the education, and fire service sectors at national, provincial, district and school levels. Observations were done among eight secondary schools, and questionnaires were answered by 869 grade 7 students. Interview transcripts underwent content analysis using the 12 influential components of successful policy implementation and the 3 pillars of comprehensive school safety framework. The level of student knowledge on fire prevention and response was examined.ResultsThree themes emerged: policy content and dissemination, factors which affect policy implementation, and impacts of policy implementation facilitating factors include effective coordination and ownership among the national DMC members for scaling up disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities, and strong support from the central government. Barriers include unclear provisions in the national legislation, unclear mandates especially on leading the program, poor monitoring system, insufficient human resources, and lack of public-private partnerships. All the study schools conducted DRR classes and designated a disaster assembly point. More than 80% of the students correctly answered items on fire response.ConclusionThe policy was widely disseminated and implemented in all levels across sectors among the study sites except for some rural areas. Although there is a lack of national legislation and clear mandates, strong leadership, and ownership of the implementers facilitated policy implementation. All the study schools conducted fire prevention activities. Most students knew how to appropriately respond to fire. A comprehensive school-based DRR program would be beneficial in improving student knowledge and practices on DRR.

Socio-political drivers and consequences of landslide and flood risk zonation: A case study of Limbe city, Cameroon

Disaster risk zonation is often proposed as a long-term disaster risk reduction strategy by international treaties and academic research. This strategy has been implemented in the city of Limbe, which is known to be a disaster-prone one. Citizens are forced to settle in unsafe terrains, ranging from wetlands to unstable hillslopes due to the city’s geographical location and economic attraction. Following the fatal landslides and floods in 2001, a local crisis committee identified affected areas and declared them ‘risk zones’ to prevent further exposure. Empirically, this study narrates the production and implementation of risk zonation policy in the city of Limbe. Theoretically, it uses an urban political ecology perspective, which incorporates science and technology studies, post-political theory and disaster research to interpret the drivers and implications of the mismatch between research, policy and action. In this case study, we investigate the implications for disaster risk reduction by describing three underlying socio-political drivers of the risk zonation policy: (i) authoritarian science regime, (ii) post-political discourse, and (iii) blame diversion. We argue that authorities from national to local level use a post-political discourse to promote and implement disaster risk reduction in the city of Limbe through the development and the application of risk zonation policy. As a consequence, risk zonation leads to poor enforcement of the law and corruption, ultimately leading to risk accumulation in this case. This analysis allows us to draw broader conclusions on drivers and implications of the implementation of disaster risk zonation policy in urban areas that are primarily governed hierarchically and prone to corruption.

A Community-Based Vulnerability Assessment of Terrestrial Flooding in the South Oropouche River Basin After Tropical Storm Bret

The year 2017 had a very active season for hurricanes and extreme weather conditions. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria did damage to several Caribbean islands. Even Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), a country which rarely experiences extreme weather conditions, was affected by Tropical Storm Bret. Tropical Storm Bret caused flooding in T&T, especially in the low lying South Oropouche River Basin.There is a dearth of research conducted in T&T about the impact of extreme weather conditions and flooding on communities and families. Thus, this study sought to conduct a community base vulnerability assessment (CBVA) of the impact of the Tropical Storm Bret induced flooding upon the residents of the South Oropouche River Basin.Primary data was collected via semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to conduct the CBVA. Furthermore, this study introduced a Modal Community Based Vulnerability Assessment Index (MCBVAI) to help determine which factors the residents South Oropouche River Basin are most vulnerable to.This study found that the most vulnerable residents were vulnerable largely to their building of structures at locations unsuitable for housing. Moreover, the most vulnerable residents also built structures that were not resilient to flooding and was elevated less than 4 feet (ft) off the ground. The appropriate policy response for the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GORTT) would be to i) establish building codes, ii) develop a comprehensive spatial planning strategy which prohibits people from building structures in unsuitable areas, and iii) implement disaster risk reduction programmes which focus on improving pre-event disaster preparedness, improving the national and local response, and promoting educational awareness.

A Spatial DEA-Based Framework for Analyzing the Effectiveness of Disaster Risk Reduction Policy Implementation: A Case Study of Earthquake-Oriented Urban Renewal Policy in Yongkang, Taiwan

Due to the many large earthquakes that have occurred in recent years, the role of seismic risk reduction in building resilient cities has become a matter of concern. The serious disaster damage brought by seismic hazards causes the adoption of migration policies such as building control in the preparedness phase. However, the restricted budget of governments resulting from the global state of economic distress generates a prioritization problem. A decision support framework could be helpful for governments to systematically integrate the complex information when implementing disaster risk reduction policies toward sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to construct an analytical framework based on Geographic Information System (GIS) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for addressing the prioritization problem by calculating policy efficiency. The spatial DEA-based framework combines indices calculation, spatial database construction, and DEA. Taiwan is an island located in the Circum-Pacific Belt, and has paid long-term attention to adopting policies for earthquake disaster prevention. A policy of earthquake-oriented urban renewal combining enhanced building capacity and city resilience has recently been implemented. A case study of the Yongkang district of the Tainan Metropolis in Taiwan was conducted in this study. The results show an operable framework and propose a suggestion for planning efficient policy priorities in each decision-making unit. In sum, the analytical framework proposed in this study could be a component of a decision support system for governments to adopt disaster risk reduction policies in the process of policy-making and implementation.

Framework Considerations for Community Resilient Towards Disaster in Malaysia

Abstract Natural disaster has led to adversity resulted from its physical (immediate on-set) and social (long-term) impact. Physical impacts majorly involved human casualties and loss or damages to properties and infrastructure. Meanwhile, among social impacts to society are the psychosocial, socio-demographic, socioeconomic, and socio-politic disturbances. Reducing the risk and impact of the disaster therefore, requires various efforts to prepare and empower the community through the implementation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) during and after a disaster as it is proven that the community themselves are first responders when disasters strike. An excellent example would be the Kobe earthquake where most of the victims survived due to prompt actions taken by members of their community. This indicates that a well-informed community i.e. with high level of awareness and sound knowledge on disaster preparedness and mitigation played crucial role in preventing greater incident of human casualties and reduce socio-economic loss to the community. Therefore, building a resilient community has become part of DRR initiatives. Review of literature, however, suggests that there are gaps in implementation due to lack of understanding of resilient community concept and suitable community-based approach in promoting a community resilience spirit towards disaster. This paper is prepared to discuss the framework considerations for building disaster resilient community in Malaysia from three (3) perspectives of DRR namely; (1) resilient community’s main capitals; (2) key drivers to community resilience and; (3) key deliverables of disaster-resilient community.

Resilient Health System As Conceptual Framework for Strengthening Public Health Disaster Risk Management: An African Viewpoint.

Disasters whether natural or man-made, pose major challenge to human health and development in Africa; their impact on the health of individuals and communities are often severe and could hinder attainment of global, regional, and national development goals (1–3). Recent disasters in Africa aptly illustrate the complex interaction between health systems and disasters; a vicious cycle in which weak health systems provide fertile grounds for deterioration of public health and natural hazards into disasters while on the other hand, disasters further decimate already weak health systems (4). The sustained transmission of the 2014/15 Ebola virus disease outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone was consistently linked to the weak health systems in these countries (5, 6). The outbreak resulted in the death of several health workers (7), depletion of scarce financial resources, diversion of medical equipment. This in addition to overburdening of already weak health information and supply chain management systems resulted in disruption of health services delivery in these countries (8–10). Other disasters such as the Yellow Fever outbreaks in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and ongoing armed conflicts in South Sudan, Central Africa Republic, northeast Nigeria, and other African countries also had similar consequences (11–15). This pattern is not limited to Africa; the fragile pre-disaster health systems in the city of New Orleans in America and the Eastern Visayas Region of the Philippines contributed to the public health consequences of Hurricane Katrina and Haiyan (Yolanda) and constrained timely and effective post-disaster health system recovery efforts (16, 17). The pre-Katrina health system in the city of New Orleans was characterized by low coverage of health insurance and reduced access to health services by the largely poor population of the city (16). Similar challenges such as inadequate health-care infrastructure, staffing, and low coverage of health insurance, which reduced access to health services were also prevalent in the affected areas of the Philippines pre-Hurricane Haiyan (17). The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and sustainable development goals (SDGs), both of which are landmark United Nations agreements adopted in 2015, recommend scaling up implementation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies as means to improve resilience to disasters globally (18, 19). The SFDRR in contrast to its predecessor, the Hyogo Framework for Action, puts a lot of emphasis on health (20). It proposes resilient health systems as an opportunity for ensuring effective DRR in the health sector (20). The World Health Assembly, through resolution 64.10, urged countries to strengthen disaster risk management (DRM) programs by incorporating them into national health systems (21). The 2008 Ouagadougou declaration on Primary Health Care and the African Regional strategy for DRM in the health sector also advocated for the use of strong health systems as the basis for addressing the health vulnerabilities and inequalities, which are associated with disasters in Africa (22, 23). The foregoing and available literatures (2, 24) make a strong case for the use of resilient health systems as a conceptual framework for public health DRM in Africa. Calls for the use of resilient health system as the basis for public health DRM have intensified lately (25); however, there is paucity of practical guidance, requisite tools, and skills for integration of DRM into longer-term health system programs in public health settings in Africa (26). This often results in parallel implementation of health systems strengthening and public health DRM programs within Ministries of Health and between their Disaster Management counterparts with duplication of efforts and lack of synergy. This article reflects on the nexus between the health system framework and DRM and provides insights into how a resilient health system could be used as a framework to strengthen public health DRM in Africa.

Urban vulnerability, disaster risk reduction and resettlement in Mzuzu city, Malawi

For most developing countries at risk of disasters and climate change, adopting structural measures to reduce disaster risks remain a challenge. This paper presents findings of a study conducted through a mixed methods design in a flood risk city in Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa. The study assesses the city's vulnerability to floods and actions being taken to reduce the risks. It then investigates how resettlement is being promoted as one such risk reduction measure. The study finds multiple vulnerability factors, including unsafe construction practices, poor drainage systems, unregulated solid waste disposal, institutional incapacity, inadequacy of land, settlements in high risk areas, deforestation, siltation of rivers and national disaster risk reduction policies that neglect urban areas. However, efforts to tackle underlying causes of vulnerability are wanting. One positive programme is a slum upgrading pilot project implemented by non-state actors that also lacks government support. In the case of resettlement, its planning and execution is fraught with multiple challenges emanating from haphazard planning and lack of community participation. The paper argues that the emphasis on resettlement is obscuring the key drivers of vulnerability, while simultaneously exposing both resettled and those left behind to further risks. It, therefore, calls for caution when planning and implementing disaster risk reduction policies that have the potential to create new forms of vulnerability to hazards or exacerbate them.