Egerton University

Human Displacement and

Management

Definitions of Disaster
Management Terms
A Hazard: A hazard is a dangerous
phenomenon, substance, human activity or
condition that may cause the loss of life,
injury or other health impacts, property
damage, loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or
environmental damage.
A Natural Hazard: Natural processes or
phenomenon that may cause loss of life,
injury or other health impacts, property
damage, loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or
environmental damage.
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 A Geological Hazard: Geological

process or phenomenon that may
cause loss of life, injury or other
health impacts, property damage,
loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or
environmental damage.

 A Technological Hazard: A hazard

originating from technological or
industrial conditions, including accidents,
dangerous procedures, infrastructure
failures or specific human activities, that
may cause loss of life, injury, illness or
other health impacts, property damage,
loss of livelihoods and services, social
and economic disruption, or
environmental damage.
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 A Disaster: A disaster is a serious

disruption of the functioning of a
community or society causing widespread
human, material, economic or
environmental loses which exceed the
ability of the affected community/society
to cope using its own resources.
A Disaster Risk: The potential disaster
losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods,
assets and services, which could occur to
a particular community or a society over
some specified future time period.
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 Disaster Risk Management: The

systematic process of using
administrative directives,
organizations, and operational skills
and capacities to implement
strategies, policies and improved
coping capacities in order to lessen
the adverse impacts of hazards and
the possibility of disaster.
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 Disaster Risk Reduction: the concept

and practice of reducing disaster risks
through systematic efforts to analyze and
manage the causal factors of disasters,
including through reduced exposure to
hazards, lessened vulnerability of people
and property, wise management of land
and the environment, and improved
preparedness for adverse events.
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 Risk Assessment: A methodology

to determine the nature and extent
of risk by analyzing potential hazards
and evaluating existing conditions of
vulnerability that together could
potentially harm exposed people,
property, services, livelihoods and
the environment on which they
depend.
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 Disaster Risk Management encompasses a

full continuum from preparedness, relief and
rehabilitation, mitigation and prevention.
This is achieved through:
increasing and sustaining resilience of
vulnerable communities to hazards through
diversification of their livelihoods and coping
mechanisms.
a shift from the short term relief responses
to development.
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 This will go a long way in preserving

life and minimizing suffering by
providing sufficient and timely early
warning information on potential
hazards that may result to disasters.
It will also alleviate suffering by
providing timely and appropriate
response mechanisms for disaster
victims.
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Principles of Effective Disaster

Management
The principles of effective disaster
management include the following:
An effective Disaster Early Warning,
Information and Prediction System;
Mainstreaming disaster management in
development programming;
Strong link between Early Warning and
Disaster Response through harmonized and
standardized rapid response interventions
to disasters;
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 A government-led institutional framework

that allows effective coordination of the
relevant stakeholders and enhances trustbuilding and collaboration among partners;
Provides for and differentiates between
procedures and mechanisms of response to
slow - and rapid onset disasters
Established and functional semiautonomous agency responsible for disaster
management with oversight from the
Ministry of State for Special Programmes;

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 Provides for flexible financial and

response procedures to facilitate
appropriate, effective and timely
planning and management of
disaster control initiatives; and
Reinforces the disaster management
strategies of vulnerable and affected
communities.
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Elements of Disaster
Management Cycle
Disaster Prevention
Prevention through measures aimed at
impeding the occurrence of a disaster, and
at minimizing its harmful effects on the
community, property and the environment.
For example, communities have their own
conflict prevention activities embedded
within their coping mechanisms, as well as
the social exchange systems which provide
their disaster management safety nets.
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Disaster Mitigation
Mitigation refers to a substantial reduction
of the impacts of a disaster in case it goes
beyond preventive measures.
For example poverty reduction initiatives
and diversification of livelihoods improve
the capacity of households and communities
to withstand negative impacts of disasters.
This demonstrates the strong link between
development and disaster management.
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Disaster Preparedness
Disaster preparedness is a package of
precautionary measures, taken in advance
of an imminent threat to help people and
institutions respond to and cope with the
effects of a disaster e.g., the Early warning
system.
This is an organized structure for prediction
and dissemination of timely and effective
information to allow individuals who may be
at risk to take action to avoid or reduce their
risk and prepare for effective response.
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 The aim of early warning systems is to

link the information provision to the
response. The process allows a leadtime to access funding, expertise and
equipment for the necessary
intervention.
Strategic food reserves, health and
essential supplies such as non- food
items remain an important component
of disaster preparedness.
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 Another example of disaster

preparedness activity is the
comprehensive and continuous
assessment of vulnerabilities and
risks in order to understand threats
of a hazard and to improve the
targeting of Disaster Management
programs.
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Disaster Response
Response involves interventions
taken during or immediately after a
disaster. Such actions are directed
towards saving lives and livelihoods
and dealing with the immediate
damage caused by disaster.

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 Process to recovery
Following response and relief, the full
disaster cycle has many phases leading to
recovery.
Rehabilitation is the restoration of the
socio-economic institutions and structures
of the affected society/community in
readiness for reconstruction i.e. rebuilding
of their life support systems and further
development.
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 It may be preceded by repatriation,

followed by rehabilitation and
reconstruction which are intertwined
with development; providing a bridge
between a satisfaction of immediate
needs and the implementation of
comprehensive vulnerability reduction
programs.
At the same time the recovery phase
entails programs designed to help
communities to return to normalcy.

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 The insurance industry will play a

crucial role in mitigating the impact of
disasters on the communities in both
rural and urban areas.
Insurance firms should be encouraged
to develop affordable products that
can be made available to the society
in order to underwrite some of the
disasterrelated losses.
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Guiding Principles of
Implementation
Guiding principles to be observed in
the implementation of disaster
management initiatives:
1. Coordination, collaboration and
communication: Adequate
coordinating and communication, at
all levels, amongst stakeholders, are
critical components of disaster
management.
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 2. Multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral

approach: Disasters cut across
disciplines and sectors; and, so, it is
important that governments promote
adoption of a multidisciplinary and
multi-sectoral approach.

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 3. Increasing partnerships and role of

communities in Disaster prevention
and Management:
Communities and households bear the
brunt of disasters and therefore should be
on the frontline of response through their
traditional coping mechanisms.
Governments should promote strategies for
disaster management based on community
consultation, experience and participation.
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 Communities should be encouraged to

establish mechanisms, building on their
traditional coping strategies to enable
them to share knowledge and
technologies and to pool together local
resources for disaster mitigation,
preparedness, prevention, response
and recovery.
This will strengthen Decentralization of
Disaster Management and enhance the
Bottom Up Approach;

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 4. Factoring of climate into disaster risk

reduction:
Many of the natural disasters are related to
extreme climate events that are key causal
factors for some emergencies that lead to
disasters. The optimum factoring of
climate/weather information (such as Early
Warning) in disaster management is a vital.
In particular, Climate Change must be
mainstreamed not only into Disaster
Management, but also in overall Development
Planning and Management.
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 5. Research and dissemination of

information:
Research and information dissemination are
critical components of effective disaster
management.
Therefore, all stakeholders in disaster
management have the responsibility of
collecting, collating, documenting and
disseminating their activities and experiences
on disasters to other stakeholders.
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 6. Regional and International

perspectives:
Some hazards such as drought, epidemics,
conflicts and proliferation of small arms are not
confined within national borders.
Governments should promote linkages with
regional and international institutions, in order
to facilitate collaboration, e.g., in Early Warning
Systems; and in fostering joint initiatives for
Disaster Risk reduction and response.
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 7. Strengthening of Capacities
for Disaster Management:
In view of the dynamic nature of
disasters, governments and other
stakeholders should continue to
strengthen capacities through
training and skills development at all
levels.
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 8. Environmental health planning

must be viewed as part of overall
health planning. Health planning in turn,
should not be conducted in isolation from
comprehensive social and economic
planning.
Disasters damage environmental health facilities
and services. Flooding, power failures, broken
pipes and blocked roads can all disrupt water,
waste and flood handling services leading to
deteroriation of environmental health.
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 An integrated approach to disaster

management has been quite
successful in many countries.

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Disaster management cycle

1. Disaster management- a development
approach- appropriate actions at all points
in the cycle lead to greater preparedness,
better warnings, reduced vulnerability or
the prevention of disasters during the the
next iteration cycle.
A development-oriented approach reduces
hazards, prevents disasters and prepares
for emergencies.
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 Inappropriate humanitarian action

and development processes can lead
to increased vulnerability to disasters
and loss of preparedness for
emergence situations.

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 2. Sustainable livelihoods and disaster

management. one of the major goals of
disaster management, and one of its
strongest links with development, is the
promotion of sustainable livelihoods and their
protection and recovery during disasters and
emergencies.
Where this is achieved people have a greater
capacity to deal with disasters and their
recovery is more rapid and more durable.
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 3. Limitation in complex emergencies

Large scale movements of people often
create emergency situations.
Disaster management cycle applies to
such cases but with limitations. Limited
number of care-providers, limited
resources to promptly and appropriately
prevent or mitigate secondary disasters
e.g., disease outbreaks, famine and the
dispersal of families.
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Steps in disaster
management
1. Vulnerability assessment-makes it
possible to anticipate problems that
specific groups will face in the event of a
disaster and during the period of
recovery.
Involves determining the spatial
proximity of population subgroups to
potential hazards according to personal
and socioeconomic characteristics that
may influence the immediate and long
term impact of hazards on them.
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 2. Prevention and mitigationcomplete prevention of disasters is

possible if we can eliminate peoples
susceptibility to hazards by moving
populations away from hazard zones,
providing complete protection from
hazards , or preventing the physical
hazard altogether.
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 3. Emergency preparedness- a
program of long term development
activities whose goals are to
strengthen the overall capacity and
capability of a country to manage
efficiently all types of emergency and
bring about a transition from relief
through recovery and back to
sustained development.
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 This aims to achieve satisfactory

levels of readiness to respond to any
emergency situation through
programs that strengthen the
technical and managerial capacity of
government, organizations,
institutions and communities.

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 4. Planning, policy and capacity building

Planning is required at all levels from
community level to national and international
levels to ensure that programs for disaster
prevention and mitigation are carried out
according to clear objectives, with adequate
resources and management arrangements, and
to ensure that strategies, resources,
management structures, roles and resources for
emergency response and recovery are
determined and understood by key actors.
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 Effective emergency planning can

only take place once roles and
responsibilities have been agreed.

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 5. Emergency response
Depends on the nature of emergency or
disaster and the effectiveness of mitigation
measures, but is also very much conditioned
by the degree of preparedness achieved.
Effective response is also depended on
experienced leaders, trained personnel, adequate
transport and logistics support, appropriate
communications, and rules and guidelines for
working in emergencies.

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 6. Rehabilitation, reconstruction and

recovery.
As the emergency is brought under control, the
affected population is capable of undertaking a
growing number of activities aimed at restoring
their lives and the infrastructure that supports
them.
Is a slow process that is nurtured carefully over
time. No distinct starting point that relief
changes to recovery and sustainable long term
development.
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Vulnerability to disasters
and emergencies.
Vulnerability is the degree to which a
population or individual or organization is
unable to anticipate, cope with, resist and
recover from the impacts of disasters.
Some disasters may involve extreme
events that affect a vulnerable population
directly, such that their livelihoods and
lifelines that support their basic needs are
disrupted for a long period of time.
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 Vulnerability is a function of susceptibility

(factors that allow a hazard to cause a
disaster) and resilience ( the ability to
withstand the damage caused by
emergencies and disasters and then
recover).
The concept of vulnerability helps to
identify those members of a population
who are most likely to suffer directly and
indirectly from a hazard.
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 Also helps to identify those who are

more likely to suffer longer periods of
disruptions of livelihoods and lifelines.
Poverty (and its common
consequences, malnutrition,
homelessness or poor housing and
destitution) is a major contributor to
vulnerability. Women and children are
most vulnerable.
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 Residence or employment in or near a

known hazard zone-.
These include communities living on
flood plains, on unprotected coasts or
low-lying islands prone to severe
storms, on slopes of volcanoes or
near industries that use or discharge
radioactive substances or dangerous
chemicals.
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 Low resilience: those with high

prevalence of environmental healthrelated disease are at higher risk to
disasters than others; the
malnourished; those with disabilities;
the frail and elderly; the children and
pregnant women; those in the lowest
socioeconomic group- all are more
difficult to recover from a disaster.
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The impact of disasters at

national level
Repeated major disasters have a
significant effect on development,
through their economic and social
costs, and may create a vicious cycle
as underdevelopment increases the
vulnerability of people and society to
disasters.

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Human actions that

increase vulnerability to
disasters
1. Improper resource management e.g.,

improper land use (deforestation)-increase of

droughts, increased soil erosion, flooding,
silting of reservoirs; inadequate drainage and
building on hillsides.
2. Urbanization- rapid increase of urbanization
poses challenges to environmental health
because it creates and increases human
vulnerability to disasters. ( inaccessible
informal settlements in highly dangerous
locations).
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 3. Rural/ urban connection- people

moving away from rural areas where
disasters are common from which they
have not been able to recover hence are
less resilient to disasters.
4. Global environmental change- climate
change that will result into new hazards
e.g., increase of wildfires and mudslides
due to increase of drought and flooding.
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Code of conduct
The code of conduct in Disaster Management
seeks to guard the standards of behaviour among
the different stakeholders. It is not about
operational details such as how one should
calculate food rations or set up an IDP camp;
rather, it seeks to maintain the high standards of
independence and effectiveness and impartiality.
The following code of conduct is provided for
stakeholders:
1. Disaster response interventions based on
facts and verifiable information:
Data from the early warning systems and the
continuous monitoring of disaster occurrence and
trends will be the basis of disaster response.
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 2. The humanitarian imperative:

the right to receive relief assistance
during disasters is a fundamental
humanitarian principle which should be
enjoyed by all regardless of race,
colour or creed.
The need for an unimpeded access to
affected populations is of fundamental
importance in exercising responsibility.
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 3. Aid is given regardless of ethnicity,

political or religious affiliation or
geographical considerations.
At all times, stakeholders will seek to
base the provision of disaster
assistance on a thorough assessment
of the needs of the affected
populations or their available local
capacities to meet those needs.
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 We shall respect culture and

customs
Stakeholders will endeavour to
respect the culture, structures and
customs of the communities and
households we are working with.

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 Disaster assistance must strive to reduce

future vulnerabilities to disaster as well as
meeting basic needs
All disaster assistance will affect the
prospects for long term development,
either in positive or negative fashion.
Recognizing this, all stakeholders should
strive to implement disaster assistance
programs which actively reduce the
beneficiaries vulnerability to future
disasters and help create sustainable
lifestyles.
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 Stakeholders will reinforce the capacity of

local communities to manage the full
Disaster Cycle
All people and communities even in disaster still
possess capacities as well as vulnerabilities.
Where possible, stakeholders should strengthen
these capacities by employing local staff and
procuring local resources.
All activities in Disaster Management should
reinforce rather than undermine existing
capacities.
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 Involvement of beneficiaries in
Disaster Management Programs
Governments and stakeholders
should fully involve communities in
the design, management,
implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of Disaster programmes.

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 Mainstreaming Women and Children

Issues
In all disaster management programmes,
Governments, partners, and stakeholders and
communities will take positive cognisance of
the excessive impacts which women and
children undergo in any disaster and hence,
shall make provisions to enhance protection,
safety and other needs of women and
children in any disaster situation.
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 Mainstreaming the Concerns of the

Challenged and Elderly
In most disaster situations, confusion
surrounds many activities, especially in
relation to relief and evacuation.
This problem particularly affects the
physically, mentally and visually
challenged, the elderly and the sick hence
the need of special provisions to cater for
these segments of the society in
emergencies.
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 Environmental Concerns
Stakeholders will pay particular
attention to environmental concerns
in the design and management of
disaster programs, constantly
reviewing the status and trends of
the environment to ensure
sustainable compliance.
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