Disaster Management Advocacy Strategy:
Nepal is exposed to multiple
hazards due to the variable geo-climatic conditions, young geology, unplanned
settlements, deforestation, environmental degradation and increasing
population. On the other hand, increasing population, rapid and unplanned
urbanization and other economic activities in vulnerable areas are other
contributing factors to increase hazards. The effects of climate change have
further aggravated the disasters in Nepal
The various government reports
over the last 28 years have shown that each year, floods, landslides, fires,
avalanches and epidemics kill hundreds of people and destroy property worth
billions of dollars. They also have a negative impact on the nation’s
development agenda. Further, disasters are made all the more devastating by
poor governance and weak coordination among government agencies and other
stakeholders, the unclear roles and responsibilities of various agencies, low
managerial skills and the lack of resources. Due to the absence of proactive
disaster management policies and other legal instruments that deal with
preparedness, effective emergency response/management and recovery– the trend
of disaster losses are increasing and people are suffering all the time.
So, in order to overcome from
being further devastating any disaster, government should have a clear cut
guideline, roles and responsibilities, and better prepared with required resources
for effective emergency response. For this, lesions from past disaster,
affected peoples issues and concerns (which might occur generally in every
disaster) would help to formulate a comprehensive disaster management policies
and other legal instruments. Thus, this advocacy framework in one hand raises
voices of the affected people of Banke, Bardiya, Dang and Surkhet districts or
their better recovery while in other it would also advocate with government for
developing a comprehensive disaster response and recovery guidelines that
addressed such recurrent issues.
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