chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)The programme helps communities to identifypotential risks and hazards in their villagesby establishing community disaster managementcommittees and disaster response teams,which are trained in disaster risk reduction issuesand disaster response skills. It also supportscommunities with mitigation activities,contingency funds and disaster drills andworks to improve their awareness of disasterrisk reduction issues. In addition to schools andcommunities, the programme works closelywith local government and civil society organizationsto strengthen government disastermanagement capacity.Disaster risk reduction and urban developmentMuch disaster risk reduction is implemented as part of local governments’ conventionalresponsibility to provide or improve infrastructure and services, and supportimprovements in housing. Perhaps the most important of these are programmes toupgrade slums, which improve the quality of housing and the provision of housingrelatedinfrastructure and services (including water, sanitation and drainage) to settlementsthat are considered (or officially designated) as slums, including those thatdeveloped illegally. In cases where these programmes are done well and in consultationwith the inhabitants, they can transform the quality of low-income neighbourhoodsand reduce or remove disaster risks. Upgrading programmes have been carried out for40 years, and in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt,Indonesia, Morocco and Thailand, they have reached a significant proportion of theurban population, reducing slum incidence in the best cases by nearly 50 per cent.Photo opposite page:Nairobi, Kenya: A girlempties the contentsof her bucket into asmall stream that runsthrough Kibera, oneof Africa’s largestslums. With more than600,000 people livingwithin one squaremile, Kibera’s lackof basic sanitationfacilities makes itspopulation vulnerableto a wide range ofinfectious diseases.© Victor Lacken/IFRCHow well-governed a city is, is also shown in the way its government responds todisasters. In Tegucigalpa, four years after Hurricane Mitch, bridges linking poor areasto the city centre had still not been rebuilt. In Caracas, eight months after the floodsand landslides of 1999, many poor city dwellers were still living in emergency sheltersin very difficult conditions. At that time, the government was criticized for prioritizingactions that benefited certain economic interests (rebuilding roads and economicinfrastructure) at the expense of addressing social issues. Again, the importance for riskreduction of good relations between local governments and their lower-income citizensis illustrated.City and municipal governments are often among the main providers of healthcareand emergency services. The quality of these services and the extent of their coveragewill obviously influence their effectiveness in disaster response. In well-governed cities,such services are also active in promoting disaster risk reduction and, where needed,in making early warning systems work. However, for much of the urban populationin low- and middle-income nations, especially those living in informal settlements,there is no public healthcare or emergency service, or if there is, it is of poor qualityand difficult to access. Ironically, it may be that private healthcare is more important150