As our research project Public Empowerment
Policies for Crisis management (PEP) will deliver a roadmap by the end of 2014,
we may also have a modest contribution to this global process, though with a
focus on Europe. Nowadays, the latter may make less of a difference than one
might think. Disasters are not just a problem of poor countries, although risks
are not divided equally, as demonstrated also by statistics presented by prof.
Ortwin Renn in the same conference.
A community approach seems a more
natural choice in the case of development countries, but its actual application
often depends on involvement of NGOs. In western countries taking care of
disaster preparedness has been delegated, for a long time already, to
specialized rescue organizations. However, nowadays disasters are not seen as
events needing primarily the attention of trained first responders, but rather
as a longer process involving more actors including also civil society.
A whole community approach needs
different capabilities, including communication among diverse organizations and
citizens, in order to enhance resilience on the individual, community and
societal level. The legal tasks of response organizations do not include all of
this. So where do such responsibilities belong? They seem to be a joint responsibility
of various actors with unclear leadership and risk of negligence.
A broad integrated approach
connecting community resilience with e.g. health care and education would fit
municipalities well. However, research
shows that local volunteer groups often feel their input is not welcomed by the
administration. Municipalities have multiple tasks competing for attention. National
authorities delegate more and more tasks to the local level, but the process
often coincides with budget cuts. Moreover, Margaretha Wallström stated that it
is unclear how activities of national authorities contribute to those of local
authorities concerning Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Activities on all levels,
local as well as national, are important to enhance resilience. So are activities
by diverse organizations and citizens groups. Recent cases of river flooding showed
that citizen initiatives were created faster than authority response. Activities of all actors are needed, as well
as strong facilitation of cooperation. Resilience is a network characteristic,
needing evolving cooperation and well-functioning links.
Contribute to the Roadmap of Public Empowerment Policies for Crisis
Management by joining the discussion FORUM on www.projectPEP.eu
! We now also have a Crisis communication WIKI for professionals, for you to check out.
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