Real Risk

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8 O

CTOBER

2005, 17,000 children died when 6,700

schools collapsed during morning classes in the earth-

quake that devastated the northern mountain region of

Pakistan. In January earlier that year, 168 countries signed up to

the Hyogo Framework for Action, to ‘build the resilience of

nations and communities to disasters,’ at the World Conference

on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe. Never had there seemed

a more timely and urgent commitment.

Of the five priorities for action in the Hyogo Framework, the third

states that governments must “use knowledge, innovation and educa-

tion to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels.” This article

focuses on this priority for action and is informed by a review

commissioned by ActionAid to document good practice so far.

Its

aim is to set out a core agenda to enable governments to focus on

what they can practically do through education and knowledge to

reduce the risks of hazards that their citizens face. The focus is on

disaster risk reduction (DRR) through schools – a core priority for

ActionAid – but the knowledge management and risk awareness

opportunities outside formal education are also considered.

For governments to meet their commitment to the Hyogo

Framework third priority for action, they should adopt a three-tiered

core agenda:

• Risk and hazards in the national curriculum

• Physical safety and resilience of schools

• Promoting a ‘culture of safety’ through schools.

The elements of this agenda come from an analysis of current expe-

rience, gaps and opportunities. This agenda should guide the creation

of national policy on DRR. In working to this agenda, governments

will be able to integrate DRR into existing commitments – most

notably the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the

Education For All (EFA) initiatives.

There is widespread agreement that education must play a central

role in making development sustainable. An equal truth, increas-

ingly irrefutable, is that development cannot be sustainable without

dealing head-on with the risk of disasters. The Hyogo Framework is

perhaps the most important acknowledgement that DRR is an inte-

gral part of development – not just a specialists’ side issue.

Risk and hazards in the national curriculum

Governments signed up to the framework must consider how their

own national curriculum can incorporate teaching on local hazards

and reducing risk. Teaching in the classroom about hazards in the

local environment is a cost-effective and concrete step governments

can facilitate that will have long-term and far-reaching impacts. There

can be few other public institutions with greater outreach and poten-

tial to educate whole communities than the school. What is more,

we are not starting from scratch.

Many countries already benefit from a wide variety of methods for

teaching about natural hazards, disaster preparedness and preven-

tion. At the time of the Kobe WCDR, around 40 per cent of countries

responding to a UN information survey were reporting some kind of

disaster-related teaching in their curriculum.

In Cuba there is a strong history of reducing risk. The national

curriculum covers disaster preparedness and response to hurricanes,

the most significant local natural hazard. The Cuban Red Cross

produces teaching materials and safety messages that are given to

children in school, and these are reinforced by what parents hear in

training courses and drills in the workplace. In South Africa, without

specific reference to disasters or hazards in the curriculum, different

initiatives – such as a board game concerning risk – have been

developed for the classroom.

The methodology and quality of teaching in different countries

on local risks and hazards is highly diverse. However, the foun-

dations are there for sharing pedagogical practice and adapting

Top of the class! Governments can reduce

the risks of disasters through schools

Yasmin McDonnell and Jack Campbell, International Emergencies and Conflict Team, ActionAid

Hyogo Framework: Priority for Action 3

Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and

resilience at all levels, incorporating:

• Information sharing and cooperation

• Networks and dialogue across disciplines and regions

• Use of standard DRR terminology

• Inclusion of DRR in formal (school curricula) and informal education

• Training and learning on DRR in communities, local authorities,

targeted sectors, with equal access for all

• Research capacity

• Public awareness and media

ActionAid’s DRR Through Schools project

In Malawi, ActionAid’s DRR Through Schools project will galvanize the

central Government to promote risk reduction in the school curriculum. The

Malawi initiative is part of a pioneering multi-country project in which

15,000 children (and their parents) in 56 schools in high-risk areas will take

part. This is a five-year project funded by DFID, and spanning seven

countries (Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Haiti, Nepal, Bangladesh and India).

The purpose of the project is to demonstrate how schools can be made safer

so they can act as centres of awareness and action on local hazards and risk

reduction. While reducing the vulnerability of the targeted communities

themselves, the experience gained on the project will also be used to help

institutionalize DRR in the education systems of participating countries, so

success can be replicated in other schools and other countries. This project is

ActionAid’s key initial contribution within the Hyogo Framework.