Disasters, Deaths and the Sendai Goal One: Lessons from Odisha, India

Natural disasters (such as floods, cyclones, heat waves, and lightning) have the potential to cause human loss and injury. Due to climate change, the number of people affected by natural disasters is increasing every year with a marked debilitating effect on developing countries as compared to developed countries. To tackle these challenges, the United Nations “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–30” identified “seven global targets”, of which the first target is to “substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030”. This research contributes to this emerging domain of knowledge by bringing gender disaggregated mortality data from 1999 to 2013 from an Indian state called Odisha. In doing so, this research brings three questions to the fore: first, why do deaths occur in disasters? This is answered by going beyond the traditional perspectives on risk and vulnerability to include a “complex perspective” developed from the theories of organization, violence, and justice. Second, who is responsible to reduce deaths and third, how deaths get recorded and reported? Based on a review of annual death reports, census data, and seven expert interviews, findings suggest that the current disaster management system in Odisha is not accountable and the death reporting and recording system merits change in order to be consistent with the Sendai’s Goal to reduce deaths. This study posits that complex perspective has the potential to improve disaster management system by shifting the attention from “at risk” community to the actors and organizations’ and to the necessary resources and measures that will be required to reduce deaths in resource poor contexts

HYPER-RISKS IN A HYPER-CONNECTED WORLD: A call for critical reflective response to develop organisational resilience

HYPER-RISKS IN A HYPER-CONNECTED WORLD: A call for critical reflective response to develop organisational resilienc

Reactive to proactive to reflective disaster response: Introducing critical reflective practices in disaster risk reduction

Beck (1992) described the modern or postindustrial landscapes as a “risk society.” The fundamental characteristic of this risk society is its interconnectedness and interdependence that makes systems and networks highly complex so much so that they are often vulnerable to abrupt failures. The landscape of risk society is highly prone to social, natural, and technical hazards. The “dangers” created from the combination of these hazards in this interconnected world are hyper/hybrid-risks illustrated through the increase in “natural”/environmental and naturally triggered tec3hnical disasters in general. In such a context, this chapter calls for a “reflective response,” one that is based on critical reflective practices and systems thinking to counter hyper-risks and develop organizational resilience. Some methodologies and methods to promote reflective response are discussed. Usefulness of a reflective response and disaster risk reduction are also explored. A charter of reflective response is suggested

Menstrual Regulation and Post Abortion Care Challenges during Flood: Evidence from Belkuchi, Bangladesh

Background: Menstrual regulation and post abortion care services are family planning methods used in Bangladesh. There are a plethora of studies that have addressed the challenges related to the quality of and access to menstrual regulation and post abortion care services in Bangladesh. Nevertheless, there is no research that specifically seeks to redress quality and access issues in flood-prone locales of Bangladesh by integrating the views of women (clients/potential clients) and service providers. This research aims to fill this gap. Methods: After the 2016 floods in Belkuchi Upazila, 370 surveys were conducted with women from January to February of 2017. All the respondents had received menstrual regulation and post abortion care services during the floods in 2016. Six designated menstrual regulation and post abortion care public facilities were also assessed using structured assessment tool, prior to the floods of 2016. The facilities included five Union Health and Family Welfare Centers and Belkuchi Upazila Health Complex. One Resident Medical Officer, five Sub-Assistant Community Medical Officers and four Family Welfare Visitors were also consulted for the assessment. Results: It was found that the outcome of their most recent pregnancy was 53% selfdiagnosed 'spontaneous abortion' and 47% menstrual regulation. Only 66 respondents (18%) shared their health-related information. 23% experienced complications for which the majority received health care. It was found the Belkuchi Upazila Health Complex is well equipped for menstrual regulation and post abortion care services. All the five Union Health and Family Welfare Centers were under-equipped and understaffed for menstrual regulation services before, during and after floods. As such, the utilisation rates of these facilities were low. Conclusions: More ethnographic research is required to address the low response rates of women sharing information on menstrual regulation and post abortion care experiences. A number of measures are also suggested as how to improve policy and practise in Belkuchi and beyond in order to build the capacity of reproductive health facilities in disaster or vulnerability contexts

High Impact/ Low Frequency extreme events: Enabling Reflection and Resilience in a Hyper-connected World

Helbing (2013:51) poignantly argues that ‘Globalization and technological revolutions are changing our planet’. Along with the benefits and opportunities associated with worldwide collaboration networks comes ‘pathways along which dangerous and damaging events can spread rapidly and globally’. With our hyper-connected world underpinned by hyper or hybrid-risks, the impact of unexpected events such as floods, earthquakes, financial crisis, and cyber-attacks has revealed the fragility and vulnerabilities that lie within the social/technological/economic/political/ecological interdependent systems. In particular, events that affect critical infrastructure such as damage to electric power, telecommunications, transportation, health care systems, financial markets and water-supply systems can have local, regional and global impact. calls these extreme events ‘Black swans’ to describe their inherent quality of surprise. Many of the systemic risks that characterize Natural Hazard triggered Technological disasters (NATECH) often arise from unanticipated consequences of interactions within and between different types of systems. Johnson and Tivnan (2012:65) argue that, ‘…understanding, controlling and predicting extreme behavior [of NATECH] is an important strategic goal to support resilience planning’. In this light, a new paradigm is required to support disaster risk reduction (DRR) embedded in hyper-risks; one that will develop not only anticipatory measures for risk management but also prepare for the unpredictable and the ‘unknown’ by building organisational resilience for hyper-risks in general and NATECH disasters in particular. In this paper we explore the emergency management domain associated with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident to show the hyper-connectivity and hyper-risks that permeated the problem space and thereby show how ‘reflective responses’ underpinned by ‘critical reflective practices’ can be used to support resilience in such a complex disaster