Humanitarianism: Education & Conflict: PEAC/EDUC 072 (Amy Kapit)

Disaster Education

Natural disasters and hazards are an indiscriminate reality for nearly every region and country on the planet. These disasters are only increasing as human development continues to alter the landscape and world around us in ways that we have yet to fully understand, and the danger they pose to human life remains a pressing issue to governments and aid organizations around the world. Addressing the issue of natural disasters is the goal of DRR, or Disaster Risk Reduction, a field dedicated to both the prevention of natural disasters when possible and the strengthening of infrastructure and resilience policies with the goal of limiting the adverse impacts of disasters on the communities and people they effect. The United Nation’s branch on DRR works to create goals for countries to strive for to help them mitigate and prepare for disasters, the most recent document being the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. According to the UN Water website, the “four priorities for action set out in the Sendai Framework [are]: understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.”
           
The last of these principles, increasing disaster preparedness, is a goal that is being tackled through various methods, including the use of disaster education. The main rationale for disaster education is that equipping people with an understanding of disasters and how to deal with them can lead to life saving behaviors in the face of an emergency situation and better resiliency in the aftermath. Disaster education is especially targeted towards the groups most vulnerable to the effects of disasters, with an extra emphasis on educating children as both a vulnerable group and the future of a more resilient community and country. While disaster education is generally seen as a good investment for DRR, the full extent of its impact and what factors might contribute to its effectiveness are not fully understood. To this end, this site looks at the effectiveness of childhood disaster education and the key factors as well as potential unexplored connections for its usefulness as DRR.


UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). (n.d.). UN-Water.
        https://www.unwater.org/institution/un-office-for-disaster-risk-reduction-unisdr/
United Nations. (2015, June). Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.
        https://www.preventionweb.net/files/resolutions/N1516716.pdf
What is the Sendai Framework? (n.d.). UNDRR.
        https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/what-sendai-framework

 

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