There are a few places left at this seminar, which takes place at
University College London on 21st April from 9.45-5.00. Further details
are given below. If you would like to attend, contact me. Places, which
are limited, will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. The
event is free.



Integrated Planning against Risk (IPAR): Exploring Interfaces between
Disasters and Development
A seminar series funded by the Economic & Social Research Council

Seminar 4
Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management:
Organisational Learning and Change
21st April 2005, University College London
Organiser:  Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London
Contacts: Dr John Twigg ([log in to unmask]) and Tom Mitchell
([log in to unmask])


The IPAR seminars:

The IPAR seminar series is a forum for practitioners, policy-makers and
academics to explore ways to manage the impact of disasters on development
processes. The focus is on supporting the poorest and most marginalized
people to withstand crises and strengthen their capacity to respond
positively to risks in changing and largely hostile environments. Whilst
the concept of risk has been much used in relation to disaster and
conflict responses, there has been little crossover to thinking and
practice in long–term development. Nonetheless how the poor and
marginalized deal with risk in their everyday lives, encounter crises and
seek security is relevant for both disaster prevention and development
planning.

The starting point for a critical reflection on risk in contexts of social
change is an understanding of how the impacts of change are shaped by
power relations, people’s agency, and the coming together of different
forms of knowledge.  For this to influence the way institutions work with
and support the poorest people, the process of operationalising notions of
risk in development planning needs examination.  Development interventions
are not neutral: policies and actions can have negative as well as
positive effects on poor people’s security and create risks as well as
reduce them.  Our perspective, therefore, calls for critical reflection on
what is meant by risk and risk management in development policy and public
action.  Our objective is to contribute to on-going debates on risk,
security, and poverty-reduction at the interface between disasters and
development.

The series comprises five seminars on different themes, each run by a
member of the IPAR network (Centre for Development Studies, University of
Wales Swansea; Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London;
Department of Sociology of Rural Development, Wageningen University;
ActionAid; and INTRAC).

Participation by postgraduate students and junior development
practitioners is very much encouraged. For further details, contact Dr
Eleanor Fisher ([log in to unmask]) or visit the IPAR website
(http://www.swan.ac.uk/cds/research/ESRC.htm).


Outline of Seminar 4:

Current thinking on managing disasters and risk maintains that development
programming should adopt a risk management approach – a systematic
approach to identifying, assessing and reducing risks of all kinds
associated with hazards and human activities. Risk management should be an
integral part of the way organisations do their work, not an add-on or a
one-off action. The modern risk management approach recognises that a wide
range of geological, meteorological, environmental, technological and
socio-political hazards threaten society – individually and in complex
interaction. Risks are located at the point where hazards, communities and
environments interact, and so effective risk management must address all
of these aspects. Hence disasters are no longer seen only as unfortunate
one-off events to be responded to, but also as deep-rooted and longer-term
problems that must be planned for.

The nature of an organisation influences the way in which it approaches
disaster reduction (or indeed any other issue). Programmes in the field
must be supported by appropriate organisational attitudes, structures and
systems. This means that institutional development is a vital part of the
risk reduction process. Awareness of disasters and risk, and commitment to
dealing with them, must be incorporated at all levels within an
organisation. Risk management, in the broadest sense, should be an
integral part of organisational strategy, procedures and culture. Although
such ‘mainstreaming’ has become a fashionable term among practitioners,
there is little guidance available on how to do it, and the guidance that
there is usually takes the form of general principles, unsupported by
examples of good or bad practice. Moreover, broader discussion of the
organisational dimensions of disaster and risk management tends to veer
between critiques of the failings of conventional institutional structures
and presentations of future idealised conditions.  The pathways that lead
from the former to the latter are rarely explored.

In this seminar, academics and practitioners from the North and the South
will examine the influences and processes that help to ‘mainstream’
disaster risk management approaches in development organisations.  The
seminar will look at a wide range of factors that shape policy and
practice within and across many different types of institution.  Several
dimensions of risk reduction thinking and practice will be covered.

Presentations will include critical reflections based upon case studies
and broader explorations of the methodological issues relating to
understanding organisational change in this context.  The presentations
and discussions will focus on three broad areas:

1. Current thinking on organisational learning and knowledge
management in development and relief contexts, and its implications for
those seeking to promote integration of risk management into development
policy and operational practice.

2. Case studies from different geographical and institutional
contexts, illustrating mainstreaming processes and factors affecting their
impact.

3. Lessons from the development and application of new methodologies
for assessing the nature extent and process of disaster risk reduction
mainstreaming, and for stimulating it in different types of organisation.