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Friday, 20 September 2013 00:33 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Experts from government, civil society, academia, and regional research institutions focused on the key messages of a recent ESCAP report on ‘Building Resilience to Natural Disasters and Major Economic Crises’, and agreed that a new economic framework is needed to confront multiple shocks in the region. The traditional policy approach has been to consider natural disasters and economic shocks individually, however the report stresses that this is increasingly unrealistic. Governments today find themselves dealing with overlapping shocks that demand more comprehensive and systemic approaches to building resilience. Organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), the policy dialogue was held on the sidelines of the sixth South Asia Economic Summit and is part of ongoing efforts by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of resilience-building.
ESCAP Trade and Investment Division Director Dr. Ravi Ratnayake observed: “First and foremost, governments must invest in prevention and preparedness and do more to protect the poor and vulnerable groups. Local communities need to be empowered because they are at the forefront of recovery efforts.” He emphasised the importance of implementing comprehensive solutions for building resilience instead of using sectoral approaches.
ESCAP senior economist Dr. Mia Mikic presented the main findings of the report and stressed that multiple shocks in Asia and the Pacific are converging in new ways that demand more comprehensive and systemic approaches to building resilience.
She highlighted: “A single incident, which might once have been localised and managed in isolation, now has multiple and interrelated regional and global consequences. The Report calls for new economic frameworks. Policy solutions must balance short-term economic stability with long-term development.”
The ESCAP report is particularly relevant to South Asia, a sub-region that has a history of experiencing devastating natural disasters and remains vulnerable to multiple shocks. IPS Executive Director Dr. Saman Kelegama highlighted that in the case of Sri Lanka, “a country often exposed to natural disasters and also on a receiving end of volatility in the world economy”.
The discussion also highlighted the need to adopt a bottom-up system, with Dr. Vishaka Hidellage of Practical Action South Asia stressing that “building local resilience is the basis for building national resilience.” Bangladesh Centre for Policy Dialogue Distinguished Fellow Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya added that response mechanisms in countries must be based on the country’s economic ability noting that “a one-size-fits-all response mechanism will not be suitable”.
The experts acknowledged that policymakers in the sub-region have taken to heart the mantra that prevention and preparedness is far more effective, and less costly, than relief and recovery efforts. For example, in Sri Lanka Matara, a city on the southern coast, was recognised for integrating disaster risk reduction into the structures and work of the local government – in particular for managing flood risk by integrating disaster risk reduction in land use planning and for increasing public participation.
In Bangladesh too, the focus has shifted from disaster relief to risk reduction and resilience. This approach is built into national development efforts and strategies at all levels of government, and has resulted in a dramatic reduction in deaths and damages. Similarly in India, expenditures related to disaster risk management are shifting from response and relief efforts to prevention and preparedness.
IPS Research Officer Kanchana Wickramasinghe observed that one of the main weaknesses of disaster management policies was the identification of vulnerable groups and targeting support to them. The need to restructure existing social protection system to provide more effective support for overlapping shocks came out in this session. She added that as economic assessments of multiple shocks that overlap in an economy are quite rare, this UN report is useful value addition to the disaster management literature.
