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|a Urban disasters - lessons from Haiti |h [electronic resource] |b Study of member agencies' responses to the earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti, January 2010 |y English. |
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|a [S.l.] : |b Disasters Emergency Committee, |c 2011. |
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|a Refer to main document/publisher for use rights. |
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|a Clermont, C., Sanderson, D., Sharma, A., & Spraos, H. (2011). Urban disasters—lessons from Haiti. Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). |
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|a This report is an evaluation of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) agencies’ response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake outlining the distinct features of urban disasters and lessons to be learned by the NGO community in managing them. This assessment is based on visits to affected communities, interviews with individuals working in DEC and UN agencies, government ministries, non-governmental organizations, and Haitian civil society. The Haiti earthquake is a case study in the struggles NGOs are having in shifting from an exclusively rural orientation towards the new reality of rising urban risks. A significant setback to an effective response in Haiti outlined by the report has been the lack of a clear conception of what the end goal of a successful humanitarian intervention in an urban context consists of. The authors believe that building social and human capital so that communities are better able to protect themselves against disaster should be this goal, but that the immediate needs of responding to the scale of disaster in a speedy manner often hamper the realization of this objective. For example, the document identifies high levels of service provision in Haiti’s post-earthquake relief camps as potentially creating a situation of perpetual relief, and thus increasing vulnerability rather than reducing it. It is in this light that the authors call for a strategy of ‘Safe return’ to places of origin combined with risk assessments and proper urban planning to prevent dependency and stimulate the social capital of pre-earthquake communities. Along these same lines, the authors call for NGOs to work with the local private sector in the provision of services, to collaborate with government institutions and pre-existing local NGOs so as to enhance the local capacity for recovery. Often international NGOs become competitors with local institutions, displacing them, and thus weakening their capacity to act in times of disaster. It is recommended that the relief effort establish a ‘Haiti first’ policy, which means involving communities in all stages of the relief and recovery effort. This can be accomplished by buying from Haitian suppliers wherever possible, and looking for the skills and resources needed to move forward within affected communities before seeking them elsewhere. This also means providing skills and vocational training to promote sustainable livelihoods, using cash transfers cautiously to aid recovery and stimulate markets rather than to create dependence, and training local partners for future relief efforts. |
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|a Electronic reproduction. |c Florida International University, |d 2013. |f (dpSobek) |n Mode of access: World Wide Web. |n System requirements: Internet connectivity; Web browser software. |
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|a Haiti Earthquake, Haiti, 2010. |
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|a Disaster response and recovery. |
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|a Disaster Risk Reduction Program, Florida International University (DRR/FIU), |e summary contributor. |
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|u http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13042411/00001 |y Click here for full text |
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|a http://dpanther.fiu.edu/sobek/content/FI/13/04/24/11/00001/FI13042411_thm.jpg |
