Mitigation | Preparedness | Responding | Recovery
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TThe social, economic and political consequences of disasters are frequently complex. For instance, the disaster may:
Moreover, the situation may be compounded by a secondary threat, such as earthquake aftershocks or epidemics. Therefore for us, it is essential that disaster response activities do not make a bad situation worse by fostering dependency or destroying existing community-support mechanisms. Rather, they should lay the foundations for the subsequent recovery of the affected population. Disaster situations are highly fluid, evolve rapidly (often in unpredictable ways) and therefore require a close degree of coordination and cooperation between those involved in the response, including the affected community itself. – IFRC
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During the Mitigation phase, efforts are made to prevent or mitigate damage / loss of life (e.g. construction of dikes and dams against floods).
Disaster preparedness refers to measures taken to prepare for and reduce the effects of disasters (e.g. emergency drills and public awareness).
The DRM’s “Response” includes such activities as rescue efforts, first aid, fire fighting and evacuation, through the mobilization of resources.
Beyond immediate relief is recovery, wherein assistance is provided to rebuild homes, lives and services and to strengthen capacity to cope with future disasters.
As DRM, our efforts start with mitigation in a bid to reduce the impact of disasters in terms of damage to property and loss of lives. If we can lessen this imapact as a collective, we can have far more reaching results. Efforts to mitigate start before the disaster happens. We analyze and attempt to reduce risk. This is not easy given that disasters can happen at any given time.
However, with modern technologies, we are able to predict some impending disasters but certainly not all. Any mitigation efforts will serve to reduce the financial toll of a disaster and in addition, it will also result in a lower loss of life.
Disaster preparedness refers to measures taken to prepare for and reduce the effects of disasters. That is, to predict and, where possible, prevent disasters, mitigate their impact on vulnerable populations, and respond to and effectively cope with their consequences. Disaster preparedness provides a platform to design effective, realistic and coordinated planning, reduces duplication of efforts and increase the overall effectiveness of all response efforts. Disaster preparedness activities embedded with risk reduction measures can prevent disaster situations and also result in saving maximum lives and livelihoods during any disaster situation, enabling the affected population to get back to normalcy within a short time period.
Disaster preparedness is a continuous and integrated process resulting from a wide range of risk reduction activities and resources rather than from a distinct sectoral activity by itself. It requires the contributions of many different areas—ranging from training and logistics, to health care, recovery, livelihood to institutional development. – IFRC
We aim to respond to disasters as rapidly and as effectively as possible. This is done through the mobilizing of resources (people, money and other assets) and using our network in a coordinated manner so that the initial effects are countered and the needs of the affected communities are met.
The primary aims of disaster response are rescue from immediate danger and the stabilization of the physical and emotional condition of survivors. These go hand in hand with the recovery of the dead and the restoration of essential services such as water and power. How long this takes varies according to the scale, type and context of the disaster but typically takes between one and six months and is composed of a search and rescue phase in the immediate aftermath of a disaster followed by a medium-term phase devoted to stabilizing the survivors’ physical and emotional condition.
Recovery refers to those programmes which go beyond the provision of immediate relief to assist those who have suffered the full impact of a disaster to rebuild their homes, lives and services and to strengthen their capacity to cope with future disasters.
Following a disaster, life-saving assistance is the most urgent need. The rapid provision of food, water, shelter and medical care is vital to prevent further loss of life and alleviate suffering. However, practical experience, backed by research, supports the view that even at this stage, relief must be conducted with a thought to the affected community’s longer-term benefit and certainly should not be prejudicial to it. And as people begin to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives, aid agencies need to help them to strengthen their resilience to future hazards. Just restoring the pre-disaster status quo may inadvertently perpetuate vulnerability. Likewise, development programmes need to take into account existing risks and susceptibility to hazards and to incorporate elements to reduce them. The two approaches are interdependent, complementary and mutually supportive. – IFRC
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