Dear Mr. Twigg,
Thank you for inviting me to the Seminar on April
21,@005. I would very much like to particpate and make
a presentation of my experiences. Can you provide
assistance for travel and accomodation from your
sponsors so that I  can attend this important seminar.
I look forward to the pleasure of hearing from you.
With warmest regards,
Durgadas Mukhopadhyay



--- John Twigg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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.
> 


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