Transcript Disaster-Risk-Reduction-in-Africa-K

Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa
Waters, Winds and Fires
A UNDP-ECHO Knowledge Sharing Event
on Disaster Risk Reduction
Johannesburg, 25-26th March
Dr Katharine Vincent
[email protected]
Why do we need to consider DRR?
Between 1991 and 2005:
• 3,470 million people were affected by disasters
• 960,000 people died
• Economic losses were $1,193 billion
Between 1998-2007:
• 76% of all disaster events were hydrological,
meteorological or climatological in nature:
• They accounted for 45% of the deaths and 79% of
the economic losses caused by natural hazards
DRM vs DRR
(Holloway, 2003)
Climate change adaptation and DRR –
different histories
Climate change adaptation
Disaster risk reduction
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• All hazards
• Origin in humanitarian
assistance
• Historical perspective
• Traditional focus on
vulnerability reduction
• Practical application at local
level
Climate-related hazards
Origin in scientific theory
Future perspective
Traditional focus on physical
exposure
• Theoretical application at
local level
The future - will they converge or
remain distinct?
Risk
• Def: the likelihood of a detrimental outcome as a
result of a particular hazard
• RISK = HAZARD + VULNERABILITY
• Expressed in terms of probability
• Risk is a daily occurrence
• Needs to be viewed in context:
– Environmental risk
– Social risk
– Historical risk
Evolution of approaches to vulnerability
–1. Natural Hazards
• 1970s and 1980s
– Move away from the assumption that disasters are
‘caused’ simply by external natural events and that
disasters are ‘normal’.
• Positivist approach: objective studying of hazards
• Vulnerability refers to risk of exposure of an
ecosystem to a hazard, “biophysical vulnerability”
• top-down approach that assumes humans are
passive recipients of environmental change
Evolution of approaches to vulnerability
2.Human/Political Ecology Approach
• Arose out of dissatisfaction with the natural
hazards approach
• Addresses political and structural causes of
vulnerability in society
• Attempts to explain why the poor and
marginalised have been most at risk from natural
hazards
• Emphasises the role of economic development in
adapting to changing external risk
– Class structure, governance and economic
dependency
Pressure and release model
Why I think they should converge:
• We are often talking about the same phenomena,
just using different terms
• You cannot adapt to climate change without DRR
• DRR adds a lot of insights to how to adapt to
incremental change
• Focus for convergence should be vulnerability risk
assessment and vulnerability reduction
• Climate change adaptation is the current “sexy
topic” – funding is available and it is high on the
political agenda
But even if they don’t, DRR must
consider the effects of climate
change...
Disaster reduction policies and measures need
to be implemented with a two-fold aim:
• To enable societies to be resilient to natural
hazards
• To ensure that development efforts do not
increase vulnerability to those hazards
(UNISDR, 2004)