Community Vulnerability to Disasters in Botswana: A Case Study of South East Administrative District
Keywords:
Disasters, vulnerability, resilience, risk, hazardAbstract
Community vulnerability to various hazards and related risks complicates recovery, reconstruction, and adaptation to disaster shocks. Vulnerability results from several factors rooted within the community requiring an accurate analysis of environmental threats. As such, vulnerability and capacity assessments are essential in the analysis and better comprehension of disasters and the related behaviour within the social environment. Hazard and vulnerability assessment diagnose situational crises and the likely effects on people and the environment. A key result from the study on community resilience to disasters in Botswana shows that communities are vulnerable and are constantly under disaster threat. Although there are district disaster management committee, they are only active during emergency response and ignore the pre and post disaster activities. As such, communities, families, and individuals lack fundamental knowledge, skills, and techniques necessary to enhance their resilience to disasters. Whereas, disaster risk reduction is a multifaceted approach which requires the deliberate involvement of different stakeholders for the successful attainment of desired ends. Therefore, tribal leaders, the business community, church leaders, government, and households should have defined roles and responsibilities in all phases of the disaster cycle. The roles and responsibilities must state actions to be undertaken before, during, and after disasters by each actor in the system.
References
Ambrosino,R., Emeritus, J. H., Emeritus, G. S. and Ambrosino, R. (2005). Social Work and Social Welfare: An Introduction. United Kingdom, Thomson/Brooks/Cole
Aghabakhshi, H. and Gregor, C. (2007). Learning the Lessons of Bam: the Role of Social Capital. International Social Work 50: 347-356.
Online article. Retrieved on 27 January, 2011. Available at: http://www.isw.sagepub.com
Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1991). The social construction of reality. London: Penguin Books
Bishop B., Paton D., Syme G. and Nancrarrow B. (2000). Coping with environmental degradation: salination as a community stressor. Network, 12, 1-15
Botswana Government (2006/7). Botswana Annual Poverty Monitoring Report, CSO, Gaborone; Government Press
Botswana Government (1996). National Policy on Disaster Management. Presidential Directive No. CAB.27/96. Gaborone: Government Press
Brueggemann, W. G. (2006). The Practice of Macro Social Work (3rd ed.). Belmont, United States Brooks/Cole
Bujold, C. (2002). Constructing career through narrative. In Journal of Vocational Behaviour (64):470- 484
Cipryk, R. (2009). Impacts of Climate Change on Livelihoods: What are the Implications for Social Protection? In Climate and Disaster Governance, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton
Drabek, T. E. (2001). Disaster Warning and Evacuation Responses by Private Business Employees. In Disasters 25(1): 76-94, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
Elvira GraigdeSaliva (2011). Social Workers as Responders to Disasters, Online article, retrieved on 27/1/11.http://www.naswde.org/practice/intl/disasters
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (2002). Earthquakes: Are you ready, FEMA, USA
Harding, S. (2007) Man-made disasters and development: the Case of Iraq. International Social Work 50: 295. Online article, 27 January 2011. Available at: http://www.isw.sagepub.com.
Hawkins, R. L. and Maurer, K. (2010) Bonding, Bridging, and linking: How Social Capital Operated in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. British Journal of Social Work 40 (1), 1777-1793.
Hellmuth, M. E., Moorhead, A., Thomson, M. C. and Williams, J. (2007). Climate risk management in Africa: Learning from practice. Climate and Society No. 1. USA: International Research Institute for Climate Change.
International Federation of the Red Cross & Red Crescent (IFRC) (2010). World Disaster Report: Focus on urban risk. USA: Kumarian Press
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2008). Case study: China and Cambodia: integrated programming and cooperation with local authorities boost communities’ disaster preparedness. USA: Kumarian Press
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2007a). The Global Alliance for Disaster risk reduction: Building safer, resilient communities. USA: Kumarian Press
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2007b). World Disaster Report: Focus on discrimination. USA: Kumarian Press.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2000:19a). Introduction to Disaster Preparedness: Disaster Preparedness Training Programme, IFRC, Geneva
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2000:6b). Risk Reduction: Disaster Preparedness Training Programme, IFRC, Geneva
International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) (2000). Review of the International Definition of Social Work. Online article, retrieved on 27 January 2011. Available at: http://www.eassw.org/ definition.asp
Kent, R. (1994). Disaster Preparedness (2nd ed.): Disaster Management Training Programme. United Nations Development Programme, DHA.
Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010). Introduction to Social Work & Social Welfare Critical Thinking Perspective 3rd Ed. Brooks / Cole, United States
Lopez-Marrero, T. and Tschakert, P. (2011). From Theory to Practice: building more resilient communities in flood prone areas.
Environment and Urbanization 23: 229. Online article, 26 May 2011. Available at: http://www.sagepublication.com.
Lu, Q., Huang, Y. and Shekhar, S. (2003). Evacuation Planning: A capacity Constrained Routing Approach, Springer-Verlag, Berlin
Maripe, K. (2011). Community disaster and risk reduction: the role of social workers in Botswana in
Journal of Sociology, Psychology and Anthropology in Practice: International Perspective
Vol. 3 (1): 43 -55
Maripe, K. (2010). Climate Change and Poverty: Concerns for Botswana and the African Continent in the Journal of Environmental Issues & Agriculture in Developing Countries Vol.2 (2&3): 169 -184
National Association of Social Workers (1999). Code of Ethics.Online article, 27 January 2011. Available at: http://www.socialworkers.org?pubs?code?code.asp.
National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) (2009a). National Disaster Risk Management Plan, Office of the President, UNDP, Gaborone
National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) (2009b). A Report on Consultation Meeting to Adopt the National Disaster Risk Management Plan, Office of the President, Gaborone
Neale, J. M., Davison, G. C. and Haaga, D. A. F. (1996) Exploring Abnormal Psychology. New York: Wiley & Sons. Inc.
Norris F. H., Stevens S. P., Pfefferbaum B., Wyche K. F. and Pfefferbaum R. (2008). Community Resilience as Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster readiness. AM Journal of Community Psychology, 41: 127-150, Springer Science and Business Media
.
Paton, D. and Johnson, D. (2001). Disasters and Communities: vulnerability, resilience and preparedness. Disaster Prevention and Management, 10 (4), 270-277
Red Cross and Red Crescent (2008). Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management -Annual report 2008, Netherland, IFRC
Rock, L. F. and Corbin, C. A. (2007). Social Work Students’ and Practitioners’ views on the need for training Caribbean Social Workers in disaster management. International Social Work 50:383. Online article, 27 January 2011. Available at: http://www.isw.sagepub.com
Rosenkoetter, M. N., Covan, E. K., Cobb, B. K., Bunting, S. and Weinrich, M. (2007). Perceptions of Older Adults regarding Evacuation in the Event of a Natural Disaster in Journal of Public Health Nursing, Blackwell Publishing. Vol. 24 (2); 160-168
Schoch-Spana, M. (2008) Community Resilience for Catastrophic health events.In Centre for BioSecurity.UMPC. Mary Ann Liebert. Inc.
SRK Consulting (2008) The Hazard identification, vulnerability and risk assessment for the Republic of Botswana: Report prepared for the National Disaster Management Office, Office of the President, Republic of Botswana, Gaborone.
Sweifach S., Larporte H. H. and Linzer, N. (2010). Social work responses to terrorism: Balancing ethics and responsibility, in International Social Work, 53: 822-835
Tobin, G. A. and Whiteford, L. M. (2002). Community Resilience and Volcano Hazard: The Eruptions of Tungurahua and Evacuation of the faldas in Ecuador in Disaster, 26 (1): 28-48
Twigg, J. (2007). Characteristics of a Disaster –resilient Community: A Guidance Note version 1. DFID Interagency Coordination Group: Available at: http://www.benfieldhrc.org/ disaster_studies/projects
United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF] (2011) UNICEF Botswana Annual Report, UNICEF, Botswana Country Office
UNISDR (2005). World Conference on disaster Reduction: Hyogo Framework for Action 2005- 2015 Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, 18-22 January, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
Victoria, L. P. (2008). Community Based Approaches to Disaster Mitigation. Regional Workshop on Best Practices in Disaster Mitigation, Center for Disaster Preparedness, Asia
