Photo: earthquake-Christchurch

Preparing for the worst

17 July 2013

by Richard Forster

With warnings of cities facing a ‘perfect storm’ of crises due to reduced funds and rising natural and man-made disasters, Jonathan Andrews explains how local government leaders are integrating citizens into disaster relief planning.

When Sam Johnson rang up the city council to volunteer after the first earthquake hit Christchurch [New Zealand] in 2010, the council asked him what skills he had and the conclusion was he didn’t really have anything to offer as has hadn’t done any civil defence training.

Undeterred by the council’s reply that he should “go help the neighbours”, Johnson, a law student, set up a Facebook page for the Volunteer Army Foundation to serve as a platform where people could connect to become volunteers and where citizens could post information on where those volunteers were needed most. The 3,300 volunteers, mainly students, focused on low-risk areas during the immediate response period including helping clear over 65,000 tonnes of silt caused by liquefaction.

Sam Johnson, Founder and Trustee, Volunteer Army Foundation
Sam Johnson, Founder and Trustee, Volunteer Army Foundation

By the time the second and more deadly earthquake hit Christchurch five months later in February 2011, both Johnson and the city council were far more prepared to tap into the underutilised network of young people. Using ‘squadrons’ of volunteers, students combed the streets searching for work and responded to requests for help from individuals for assistance via a website and call centre in partnership with the New Zealand Civil Defence and the city council.

“Just using very basic technology, having access to Internet and using tools like Google, Gmail and Dropbox to speed up processes, made life a heck of a lot easier,” says Johnson.

This included a mobile management technology which was put together by New Zealand companies, Geoop.com and Snap Internet, to coordinate the large number of volunteers.

“I wouldn’t say our initial dealings with the council went smoothly, with bureaucrats understandably worried about liability and it was a steep learning curve for both of us,” admits Johnson. “But we became the service provider for all spontaneous volunteers, so the people who wanted to volunteer, and did not have a specialist skill, came through us.”

Global assistance
Reaching out to youth and the community in general is one area that the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is focusing on as it implements the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, or Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA2). The Hyogo Frameowork is due to be implemented during the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan in early 2015 and will be overviewed by UNISDR through its 10-year term.

“Ultimately, things will not radically change until we use individual citizens and mobilise,” says Margareta Walhström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Chief of UNISDR, who is keen to design the HFA2 with local actors in mind as primary implementers. “I’ve heard this from many governments that we cannot really cope with these costs of disasters anymore. We need citizens to take more responsibility for their own safety.”

In recognising the work of the Volunteer Army Foundation (VAF) in New Zealand, Walhström met Johnson in Geneva in May and they are in discussions to franchise the VAF model to mobilise a global youth movement that will advocate resilient communities in promoting actions that reduce disaster risk.

Margareta Walhström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Chief of UNISDR
Margareta Walhström, Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Disaster Risk
Reduction and Chief of UNISDR

“We are testing an idea with Sam,” Walhström adds. “We need to imagine an HFA2 for citizens. It will be built really on all of his experience and self organising groups.”

Acknowledging Johnson’s initial resistance in dealing with his local council, Walhström accepts that it is a new challenge for both parties in how to engage with each other. “I’ve seen and heard a lot about self-organising community groups that have not been able to get their local, or national, governments to accept that they can actually contribute,” she explains.

“They have acted with a bit of caution. ‘Who are these people who suddenly want to do things for themselves?’ There are many good examples of when it happens, but there is no automatic model for how it can happen.”

 

Broadening the issue
Community participation is a key part of the UNISDR’s ‘Making Cities Resilient Campaign’ handbook. Launched in 2010 and now in its second phase, the handbook and toolkit have been a starting-point for cities to become resilient and better prepared for disasters.

The website and handbook point to good practices and tools, particularly in community engagement, that are already being applied and offers practical guidance to take action on the ‘Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient,’ as set out in its campaign.

“What is beginning to happen is that people are starting to understand the linkage between disaster risk reduction and climate change and how to build resilience into their city,” confirms David Cadman, President, ICLEI, local governments for sustainability.

In Makati City, the Philippines, also known as the financial district of the capital, Manila, a project to reduce the vulnerability of people’s houses along the West Valley Fault zone highlights this linkage. Local residents, who were engaged throughout the project, assisted the city hall engineers to inspect 1,200 structures along the fault zone which led to the formulation of a 10-year re-development plan to re-house the residents and convert affected land into a fault zone park.

Violeta Seva, Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Makati City, believes that the willingness, leadership and commitment from the community and local barangay (city ward) leadership was crucial to the success of the pilot.

“A project will not work where the people themselves are not willing to help themselves especially when dealing with relocation issues stemming from disasters,” says Seva. “It is very important that the very people who will be affected by a disaster should decide for themselves whether or not they want to have a safe environment for their families.”

The project involved distributing information, education and communication materials, and emergency management training to garner interest from the community. Seva says that the pilot project will be expanded into other barangays along the fault zone, in 2014, and again will include a focus on flooding and earthquakes.

City-to-city community sharing

Another channel that is assisting local governments to reach out to community groups is through city-to-city sharing. Through the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction City-to-City Sharing Initiative, Makati City was able to learn from Quito, Ecuador, and Kathmandu, Nepal, on how to reduce urban risk, raise public awareness and enhance the capacity of city leaders.

Every year on 15 January, Nepal commemorates the earthquake of 1934, to remind the community of the dangers and also of the need for planning. Activities are held to increase public awareness and interest, through street parades, shake table demonstrations, exhibitions on safe construction, and poster and art competitions, generating wide public participation and media interest.

“We collaborated on enforcing the building code and in organising community emergency response teams,” says Seva. “Sometimes they [city leaders] also feel more comfortable in talking to their peers compared to bringing in a scientist. It’s difficult to link or connect with each other. But if the mayors talk to each other and the mayor says he or she is doing this, they can easily relate. Even the urban planners and engineers, they can immediately communicate.”

A further basic step to engage with the community, says Cadman, is by utilising schools, not just for education purposes but as a base for disaster response. “In case of a disaster occurring during the day, it’s where all the parents go because that’s where their kids are,” he says. “It becomes a good focal point to begin organising within the neighbourhood.”

In Cadman’s own city of Vancouver, Canada, schools already house large cargo containers that hold the basic necessities to see that particular neighbourhood through the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

“It is also an educational venue for the children, and a place through which we can send out information to families,” he adds. “Young people can be the motivators in the house to prepare for a disaster response.”

Although many city leaders would rather not admit that it takes a disaster to awaken a community, they all agree that it does make a city better prepared in the future. “If something goes wrong in these areas, local people will be more interested,” says Devendra Dongol, Head of the Urban Development Department, Kathmandu Metropolitan City. “They will take the responsibilities themselves and will be there to assist in future earthquake disasters.”

In Christchurch, the city is a much better position in pre- and post-disaster actions that involve the community. The Volunteer Army Foundation now sits neatly in a rugby-type ‘scrum formation’ which is prepared for a similar disaster occurring. Included in this are the council, the mayor’s office, the Farming Army, big volunteer associations, like the Red Cross, and the media. Christchurch,and other cities across New Zealand are now also ready to sign up to UNISDR’sResilient Cities Campaign after apresentation by Johnson in May.

“The understanding we now have with our council is that it’s [disaster risk management] not a council run activity,” says Johnson. “It’s a collective group of community people deciding we are going to do this but, most importantly, you’ve still got someone there from the mayor’s office.”

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