Shifting from Relief to Development and Conflict to Peace?
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Reducing vulnerability through preparedness.
A current problem is that the international system creates more incentives for organisations to ignore preparedness and mitigation and to continuously struggle with disasters, vulnerability and relief. The great challenge of the future lays in convincing the international community that the short-term costs of disaster mitigation are worth the long-term benefits of risk reduction. The United Nations also recognises this problem: "the International community should focus on initiatives to encourage governments to incorporate disaster risk mitigation into national planning processes" (UN, 2001).
However, Nicaragua provides an example of how a major disaster, in this case Hurricane Mitch, transformed the national agenda for disaster mitigation and preparedness. Before Mitch, disaster mitigation and preparedness efforts were not significant priorities for either the a government or NGOs. After Mitch, a realisation emerged that addressing risk should be a part of development. Disaster has the potential to provide a window of opportunity for advocacy, but experience suggests that it is doubtful if this advocacy has had any general impact on policies or their implementation so far.
Ironically, disasters may provide some opportunities for peaceful resolutions. For example, the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey did a great deal to patch up relations between Turks and their Greek neighbors, while in Aceh the earthquake-tsunami created a fertile environment for a peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Gerekan Aceh Merdeka. However this might not be the case with the Kashmir conflict. Apparently, the 2005 earthquake did not, so far at least, provide opportunities for peaceful resolution between India and Pakistan. How to realise a tangible and sustainable outcome for conflict resolution in Kashmir, is a question still to be answered.
As of today talk is ongoing and a peaceful outcome may ensue.
References:
Rocha, Jose and Christoplos, Ian: Disaster Mitigation and preparedness on the Nicaraguan Pots-Mich Disaster. 2001, 25: 204-250
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
