Disaster Management, Sustainability and Resilience

Disasters have devastating effects on people, economy, infrastructure and over past two decades, disasters have affect approximately 4.4 billion people with 1.3 million causalities and $2 trillion in economic losses. For reconstruction and recovery, best possible information should be available to make well informed decisions.  In this article, theoretical framework  consists of two main IT based components of a knowledge-base and a decision support shell  have been proposed for making more informed decisions during post recovery phase –rescue, relief and rehabilitation.  Knowledge based system would help Emergency Response Management (ERM) team to plan effectively by assessing the available resources. It would also assist in timely and sustainable response during post disaster scenario.

Read more:

//www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705815020779

The emphasis on sustainable and resilient disaster response has absorbed significant amounts of resources, which could have been allocated for development efforts. Coping capacities with a practical alternative of promoting and supporting local, national and regional programmes and initiatives to enable the societies to become resilient to the negative impact of natural disasters and hazards related to environment and technology. Traditional coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies, are no longer valid and appropriate.Globalization has increased the risks faced by the vulnerable communities especially marginalized and excluded ones. Although no country is safe from nature related hazards but lack of capacity to limit the impact of hazards remains a major burden for most of the developing countries.  Globalization has weakened the roots of organizational capacities that still exist in suburbs and rural areas to deal with disasters by introducing dependency factors.

Reference:

//www.gdrc.org/uem/disasters/disenvi/DR-and-SD-English.pdf

//papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3798226

One of the 17 Sustainable Developmental Goals established by the United Nations in 2015 was to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all ages. It was estimated that $5 trillion to $7 trillion will be required to achieve SDGs globally from 2015 to 2030. The escalation of severe disasters caused by natural, technological and environmental hazards threatens sustainable development in public health sector.

Disasters undermine sustainable development. It challenges the efforts to reduce poverty by pushing those who are below poverty line to chronic poverty. South Africa, already in poverty brackets retards the SDGs.

• A study conducted in Mexico indicates underemployment, unemployment and gender gaps in physicians and nurses putting the female physicians into disadvantage. The numerical strength of health sector workers contributes to the proposed global strategy of SDG.
• Disaster ethics requires family physicians to take active roles during and after disasters such as detection of events, information gathering, interventions and rehabilitation activities.
• Indonesia’s strategy of decreasing maternal mortality by increasing the number of midwives. Increasing the strength of doctors and accessibility to hospitals can further reduce the maternity mortality rate by 2030.
• Abuja Declaration of African countries has committed to allocate at least 15% of their annual budget to health sector.
• The chain of events that happened during COVID-19 dislodged innumerable workers from their jobs. Government of Pakistan, in the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme, employed these workers as jungle workers, thus efficiently handling human resources and the environment.

Citation

1. Rasheed R, Rizwan A, Javed H, Sharif F, Zaidi A. Socio-economic and environmental impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan-an integrated analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Apr;28(16):19926-19943. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-12070-7. Epub 2021 Jan 6. PMID: 33410007; PMCID: PMC7787403.

2. Cameron L, Contreras Suarez D, Cornwell K. Understanding the determinants of maternal mortality: An observational study using the Indonesian Population Census. PLoS One. 2019 Jun 3;14(6):e0217386. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217386. PMID: 31158243; PMCID: PMC6546237.

Reference

//sdgintegration.undp.org/accelerating-development-progressduring-covid-19?utm_source=EN&utm_medium=GSR&utm_content=US_UNDP_PaidSearch_Brand_English&utm_campaign=CENTRAL&c_src=CENTRAL&c_src2=GSR&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt-6LBhDlARIsAIPRQcIpCJvgz0YJu2AIlJpdeJpM_I-cmVUAXavemWBKb4K0f9e3NnnSmY4aAsvhEALw_wcB

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