18 Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation

Dr. Lubna Siddiqui

   Objectives

•  To get acquaintance with the importance of providing disaster relief, the corresponding International laws and guidelines/ standards and humanitarian principles
•  To understand the concept of disaster relief including

       a. What all constitutes disaster relief/ aid?
b. Who are the providers and distributors of disaster aid?

•  To understand the concept of Rehabilitation and its importance in development goals

   Rationale

Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation forms important components of Disaster Management. The phase of disaster relief provides essential requirements for survival of the affected community. Relief must be provided in a humane manner recognizing the dignity of individuals and their right to post disaster relief. Disaster Rehabilitation is part of Post-Disaster Recovery and is a long-term strategy that must help in the mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Reduction efforts into developmental planning .

Unit 1 – Disaster Relief

Disaster Relief is the process of responding to a disaster event that has led to adverse impact on the lives of the affected community, to alleviate the suffering and providing humanitarian aid. Relief refers to the provision of appropriate essential services to the affected community in a timely manner based on the initial rapid assessment of the immediate requirements after disasters. The evacuation of people from their residence in cases of risk of the occurrence of disasters, and thereby provisions of emergency services including temporary shelter and immediate needs like food, clothing, non-food items etc. are also considered under disaster relief. In the alleviation of sufferings of the affected community, the phase of disaster relief is usually considered up to six months from the occurrence of the incident. It includes the immediate aftermath when essentials are required and extends up to the rehabilitation phase of disaster response/ recovery sometimes overlapping with it. Disaster Recovery needs to be synchronized with rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in order to bring about quicker and effective recovery of the affected community. The following figure (Figure-1) indicates the Disaster Recovery cycle with an indicative timeline of the steps post disaster event and corresponding unit cost of materials. The First facet of disaster recovery is the Relief that starts with the disaster event and extends till stability is reached (usually about 6 months post the devastating event). This is followed by the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction phases that start post some stability is reached. Proper needs assessment is an important component of these phases and thereby the requirement for stability.

    Figure 1 Disaster Recovery CycleSource:(Paul, 2011)

    International Laws pertaining to Disaster Response

There are certain international laws that necessitate disaster relief (Haider, 2013). The International Human Rights Law indicates that it is the duty of the state to protect and to fulfil human rights of their people within the administrative jurisdiction of the state. The key sources of the Law includes

the International covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, 1948, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1979, Regional IDP conventions and International

Customary Law including jus cogensnorms. The key provisions of the International Human Rights law are Political Rights that includes Right to life, freedom from torture, freedom of movement etc. The economic and social rights include Right to food, housing, clothing, health, livelihood, adequate standard of living etc. These are also to be provided to the citizens of nation as per the Constitution. Humanitarian assistance, thus, becomes an obligation on the part of the State, as legal space is present for individuals to claim right to humanitarian assistance.

Based on the experience of various agencies in disaster response, there is a set of laws, rules and principles dealing with International Disaster Response (termed as IDRL). It aims to improve international humanitarian framework covering humanitarian assistance to the affected population. The IDRL applies to both state and non-state actors and are based on treaties (international, regional, bilateral), non-binding UN resolutions, non-binding ‘Guidelines for Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance’, 2007 as well as the International Law Commission’s draft articles on protection of persons in the event of disasters. The

key provisions of such laws ensure sovereignty of the state as a key feature of international disaster assistance, and attribute the primary responsibility for all aspects of humanitarian assistance within its territory (initiation, organization, coordination and implementation) onto the state. The IDRL also highlights the importance rather than right of humanitarian assistance in disaster contexts.

Humanitarian Principles

Humanitarian response to disasters are based on four key pillars:

o   Humanity– Human sufferings must be addressed wherever it is found protecting lives, health and ensuring respect for human beings

o   Neutrality– Humanitarian actors must not be biased or take any side in hostilities or be engaged in controversies of political, racial, religious or ideological nature.

o   Impartiality – carried out on the basis of need alone, giving priority to the most urgent cases and making no distinction on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class or political opinions

o   Operational Independence– autonomous from political, economic, military, or other objectives that any actors may hold with regards to areas where humanitarian action is implemented

It becomes extremely important to respond to disaster situations upkeeping the 4 pillars of humanitarian principles for an effective, equitable and just disaster relief.

Disaster Relief – Materials and Guidelines

The basic ideology of disaster aid is to alleviate sufferings of disaster-affected population and to provide to them materials and support for ensuring their survival without affecting their dignity . In order to provide an effective, needs oriented response strategy, certain minimum standards are suggested for humanitarian relief. (The Sphere Project 2011, 2013) .These standards for humanitarian relief are recognized as “Sphere Standards”.

The following are essential constituents of disaster relief:

Participation of disaster affected community in the assessment, design, implementation and evaluation of assistance programmes .

Initial Assessment on the parameters of threats to life, dignity, health and livelihoods in order to determine the requirement and nature of the response.

Response when needs are unmet, and the relevant authorities in the area are unable or unwilling to respond to protection and assistance of the affected population under their jurisdiction.

Equitable and Impartial assistance based on the vulnerability and needs of individuals or groups affected by disaster.

Monitoring effectiveness of response and changes incorporated to improve the assistance program or phasing out, as required.

Evaluation of humanitarian action, intended to draw lessons for improving practice and policy and enhance accountability.

Ensuring aid workers competencies and responsibilities including qualifications, attitude and experience to plan and effectively implement the appropriate program.

Supervision, management and support of personnel to ensure effective relief.

Based on the above considerations, few standards are set for ensuring minimum requirements of Water, Sanitation, Food, Nutrition, Shelter and Healthcare to satisfy basic right to life with dignity in the disaster affected community.

Water supply, Sanitation and Hygiene promotion:

§ All hygiene facilities and resources provided must reflect the vulnerabilities, needs and preferences of the affected population and the users are involved in the management and maintenance of facilities.

§ All the affected communities must have safe and equitable access to sufficient quantity of water for drinking, cooking and personal/ domestic hygiene along with the adequate facilities to collect, store and use required sufficient quantities of water.

§ Water provided must be palatable, and of sufficient quality to be drunk and used for other uses without significant risk to health.

§ Adequate number of all-day, safe, and rapidly accessible toilets preferably close to their dwellings, designed, constructed and maintained in a hygienic manner.

§  Disaster affected population to be sufficiently aware of vector control measures to prevent risk to health/ well-being.

§ Disaster affected population should have the access to solid waste management/ disposal facilities.

§ Proper drainage arrangements must be ensured in order to avoid the problem of land erosion or the condition of water logging due to disaster events.

   Food Security, Nutrition, Food- Aid:

§   Response to provide food supplies must be respectful keeping in view the local context of food preferences, access, impact of disaster events on current and future food security, meeting nutrition needs of the affected population etc.

§   If the affected population is at risk of malnutrition, the appropriate assistance program must be based on the cause, type, degree and extent of malnutrition keeping in mind micronutrient deficiencies.

§  Affected people should have the access to adequate food and non-food items of appropriate quality in order to ensure their survival, prevent erosion of assets and upholds the affected person’s dignity with protection and support of primary production mechanisms of food and unrestricted access to markets.

§  To ensure that the affected people have income generation/ employment opportunities to generate fair remuneration and contribute towards food security.

§  Rations for food distribution must be designed to bridge gaps between populations requirement and their own food resources.

§  Ensuring that food is stored, prepared and consumed in a safe and appropriate manner at the household and community levels.

Shelter, Settlement and Non-Food items:

§  Existing shelter and settlement solutions must be prioritized through a quick disposal system.

§  To facilitate returning of community dwellers to their original dwellings with improved hygienic and safe conditions through appropriate physical planning.

§   Any construction activity undertaken must be in accordance with the local safe building practices and must maximize livelihood opportunities and minimizing adverse environmental impacts with respect to material sourcing and construction techniques.

§  Disaster affected people must possess sufficient clothing, blankets, bedding to ensure dignity, safety and well being with access to items of personal hygiene (soap etc.), cooking and eating utensils, cooking facilities including fuel, and artificial lighting.

§ Disaster affected households in need of maintenance or construction/ safe use of their shelter must have access to necessary tools and equipments.

Health Services

§ Standardized Health services (following accepted protocols and guidelines)delivered by trained, competent health workers , and consistent supply of essential medicines and consumables must be accessible to all, coordinated by the responding agencies

§  Primary healthcare services must be kept free for disaster victims during disasters.

§  The delivery of health services must be guided by collection, analysis, interpretation and utilization of relevant public health data

§  Essential health services must be prioritized to address the main causes of excess morbidity and mortality following disaster event, including diagnostic facilities

focusing on:

New born and children

Addressal of injuries to prevent avoidable morbidity, mortality and disability

Prevention/ Reduction of mental health problems and associated impaired functioning

Prevalent chronic health conditions

§ Corresponding information relating to the excess morbidity and mortality through communicable diseases and the availability of treatment/ healthcare must be shared with all affected people

§  Prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases must be ensured by health agencies once the disaster situation stabilizes

§  Reproductive health services of the Minimum Initial Services Package (MISP) must be made available and accessible on priority during the onset of emergencies (including access to minimum set of HIV prevention, treatment care and support) and comprehensive Reproductive health as the situation stabilizes

Disaster Relief- key components

Post Disaster reliefs or aids are usually arrived in the form of funds, foods, medicines, equipments, building materials, technical assistance, or debt relief. Relief activities usually include the provision of food, medicines and healthcare, safe drinking water and sanitation, temporary shelters, sense of security and psychological and social first aid. Relief workers focus is on meeting the immediate needs of the affected individuals and community.

The affected area receives disaster aid from domestic and foreign sources. Such disaster aid is then distributed among the affected community. The process of raising a request for disaster aid involves Flash Appeals by certain agencies from/ on behalf of the disaster affected nation and the corresponding pledges and disbursement of disaster aid in response to the appeals.

Flash appeals includes identifying needs of the affected community, coordinating a strategic response in order to satisfy the needs, followed by publicizing funds and materials need in order to carry forward the response to disaster events along with inventorying relief and early recovery projects. Flash appeals are generally made by the government of the disaster affected nation. Irrespective of the appeals made by the administration of the affected area, to help victims of the extreme event, any NGO may also make such appeal. If the disaster event affects a very large number of people, the United Nations (UN) could also make an appeal to the nations and potential donors across the globe on behalf of a disaster affected country or countries (Paul, 2011).

A pledge is a non-binding promise that is often very general, and could also be a ministerial statement. It could include emergency relief and reconstruction aid. Donor agencies cannot generally give away funding or any other form of aid without terms of reference or contract that specifies the utilization specifying its intent and objectives. Disaster Aid is the fund/ materials towards disaster relief that is actually released by the donor agencies to the disaster affected nations.

Agencies in Disaster aid and relief distribution

There are numerous agencies involved in the provision of disaster aid as well as distribution to the affected community. The following table (table 1) provide a list of key agencies involved in disaster relief.

Table 1 Providers and Distributors of Disaster Relief (adapted from Paul, 2011)

For any disaster event, the very first responders are the local people and agencies. They show enormous solidarity with the affected community and offer immediate assistance including fo

  Table 1 Providers and Distributors of Disaster Relief (adapted from Paul, 2011)

For any disaster event, the very first responders are the local people and agencies. They show enormous solidarity with the affected community and offer immediate assistance including food, shelter, clothing, cash, labour and are usually both providers and distributors of disaster aid. They also provide crucial psychological support. The domestic respondents would also include the friends and relatives of disaster affected people who might be residing outside the affected areas or people in the neighbouring areas and other business/ non-business organizations in the nearby non-affected areas. The Local government and NGOs are usually the next set of responders. If the disaster event exceeds the capacity of the local government to respond to the situation, further help could be sought from agencies like the State Disaster Response Force, the National Disaster Response Force, Indian Army/ Navy/ Air Force, international NGOs etc.

In order to ensure better coordination between the responding agencies, Inter Agency Groups are being promoted. The National Disaster Management Authority and the Ministry of Home Affairs have also come up with guidelines for Incident Response System to provide standard operating procedures and roles/ responsibilities allocation for the local government to coordinate response. It moves from a people oriented to a process driven response strategy, documenting every step in the disaster response and aids in making better decisions with respect to ensuring effective response and immediate disaster relief.

Cash- the most effective Disaster Relief

Disaster aid consists of immediate assistance in various forms. Responding agencies opine that ‘cash’ is the most useful donation that could be donated by people or agency interested in helping the affected community . (FEMA, 2011) The flexibility offered by disaster aid in the form of cash, especially to the responding agency helps in a “culturally, nutritionally and environmentally acceptable support” and it helps to stimulate the local economies, mainly by not competing with goods from the local market and does not have transportation/ shipping costs associated with other forms of donation(USAID-CIDI)

Mechanism of Funds/ Aid disbursal

At present there is no central agency functioning to channelize funds post any disaster event. Donor governments usually disburse funds through UN agencies, regional multinational organizations and/ or domestic NGOs. Bilateral aid is often sent directly to the affected nation’s government. Donor agencies could also channelize funds through multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank thus preventing multiple transactions- each with its own set of objectives. Usually ,there is a gap between the amount of aid pledged by donors and the amount of aid that is actually released for the utilization to responding agencies(Paul, 2011).

Foreign private donations are usually channeled through NGOs and charities.

Figure 2 Channelization of Disaster Aid from donor agencies to government of disaster affected nation through channel agencies (adapted from Paul, 2011)

Thus, in the case of a flooding incident in one part of a country, a responding NGO with international presence would collect donations/ funds from various locations across the globe, and inform its office near to the affected location the amount which it has been able to collect internationally. Thereby, the local office would know the maximum available funds and make necessary arrangements for disaster relief without the necessity of physical presence of funds in order to provide quick response. Most NGOs in developing nations largely depend upon the external support for disaster assistance and could thereby considered as distributors rather than providers.

Media plays a key role in the mobilization of funds and also makes impact on the way how disaster effects are portrayed. It would be easier to mobilize funds with the mobilization campaign focussing on individual victims rather than an entire area being affected. Funds mobilization campaign of NGOs could be observed focussing on the individual impacts (preferably children). The phenomenon of psycho-social numbing is attributed to such funds mobilization campaigns which indicates that people become increasingly insensitive to events that impacts large number of people but respond strongly to single identifiable victims.

Unit 2 – Disaster Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation phase starts after the completion or near completion of immediate response stage, when order begins to be restored and an estimate of losses/ damages due to the disaster could roughly be assessed.Rehabilitation may be defined as “an overall dynamic and intermediate strategy of institutional reform and reinforcement, reconstruction and improvement of infrastructure and services, aimed towards the support of the initiatives and actions of the affected population in the political, economic and social domains, as well as reiteration of sustainable development.” (NDMA, 2016). The efforts on post disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation (that are important facets of disaster recovery) are considered as opportunities to “build back better”. They are seen as enablers for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction efforts and embedding Risk reduction into developmental measures for building resilient communities.

Rehabilitation can be classified into four categories:

1. Physical Rehabilitation– Reconstruction of physical infrastructure which includes land use planning, micro and macro-zonation, retrofitting, Disaster resilient cropping patterns, watershed management etc. It also includes the aspects of Relocation.

2. Social Rehabilitation– These includes restoration of social structures in the destruction areas and may emphasize upon the vulnerable groups like children, elderly, women and marginalized communities.

3. Economic Rehabilitation – includes livelihood restoration and business continuity, so that income generation is restored with particular emphasis on sustainable employment/ income generation.

4. Psychological Rehabilitation– includes stress management with particular focus on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders

Rehabilitation programs must include the understanding developed over time about the systematic causes and the long-term consequences of the disaster event (Niazi). The vulnerability of the community that was exacerbated by the exposure to the disaster event must be addressed in this stage of disaster management by mainly addressing the altered poverty levels emerging after the disaster. Immediate relief and reconstruction activities including physical rehabilitation, provides immediate boost to the local economy. When such physical measures are supported by the improvement in land, water and environmental resource management, with improvement of economic opportunities, the vulnerabilities could be addressed effectively, thus ultimately improving the quality of life and disasters thus provide the window of opportunity during the rehabilitation phase to gradually introduce to the community concepts like better construction practice, rainwater harvesting, improved sanitation, sewerage and drainage thereby promoting better management of resources. Figure-3 indicates the steps from Disasters to sustainable development.

Rehabilitation must, therefore, be undertaken taking into consideration the detailed socio-economic profile of the affected community and risk assessments with monitoring and evaluation frameworks in place. Past interventions (pre-disaster development related schemes and programs and post-disaster interventions) must be monitored and analyzed to avoid creating or exacerbating risks. A community led process, in coordination with local staff would ensure proper planning and implementation of rehabilitation programs. The local government thus plays a very important role in the rehabilitation of disaster-affected community.

PDNA & Rehabilitation

    Post Disaster Needs Assessment is a prerequisite for planning disaster Rehabilitation (IFRC, 2012). A detailed needs assessment would bring about the requirement for interventions at various levels. Based on these identified requirements, rehabilitation strategy is prepared that considers the following :

The nature of disaster and the resultant type, scale and extent of damages Proper stakeholder analysis

Coordination between various agencies involved in rehabilitation

Risk management to ensure new risks are not built into the community during the rehabilitation/ development phase and focusing on Disaster Risk Reduction efforts Gender sensitive redevelopment

Environmental and other resource considerate redevelopment in the form of interventions that bring about sustainable improvement in the quality of life.

Figure 3 From Disaster to Sustainable Development (adapted from (Niazi))

Balancing needs with available resources are critical in the rehabilitation stage. Relief stage might attract large international and national aid while the rehabilitation stage might not garner the same amount of attention. Thus prioritization of investment would be a key requirement for effective rehabilitation. Bottlenecks for rehabilitation include (Aysan & Davis, 1993):

Funds– sources and distribution

Materials for reconstruction, livelihood diversification or resource management

Equipment and tools– for facilitation of reconstruction and rehabilitation

    Energy/ Power– for critical infrastructure and facilitate economic rebuilding of affected community

Land– especially post devastating disasters like landslides, floods, soil/ sea erosion etc.

Human resources– due to casualty or outmigration

Data– reliable information could be problematic due to the decentralized work environment and lack of inter agency coordination

Administrative structures and organizations– due to excess work pressure on public sector

Summary

Disaster Relief refers to the provision of appropriate essentials to the affected community, in a timely manner, based on an initial rapid assessment of the immediate requirements in post disaster phase. It includes the immediate aftermath when essentials are required and extends up to the rehabilitation phase of disaster response/ recovery sometimes overlapping with it. It is observed that cash is the most effective form of disaster aid to the responding agencies as it enables a contextual response. The primary responsibility for all aspects of humanitarian assistance within its territory (initiation, organization, coordination and implementation) is with the state. Agencies responding to disasters bear in mind the humanitarian principles of Neutrality, Impartiality, Humanity and Operational Independence while responding to disasters. There are certain standards expected in disaster relief that are developed based on the experience of responding agencies.

Post Disaster Rehabilitation phase starts immediately post the response stage, when order begins to be restored and an estimate of losses/ damages due to the disaster could roughly be assessed.Post Disaster Needs assessment is a prerequisite for planning disaster Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation programs must include the understanding developed over time about the systematic causes and the long-term consequences of the disaster event on the disaster affected community/ area and aim to mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction into the Development process with the goal of sustainable development.

References

• Aysan, Y., & Davis, I. (1993). Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. UNDP.
• FEMA. (2011, September 29). Retrieved August 14, 2017, from https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2011/09/29/cash-donations-are-quickest-and-best-way-help-disaster-survivors
• Haider, H. (2013). International Legal Frameworks for Humanitarian Action: Topic guide.
• Birmingham, UK: GSDRC, University of Birmingham.
• IFRC. (2012). Post-disaster community infrastructure rehabilitation and (re)construction guidelines. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva.
• IFRC. (n.d.). Services for the disaster affected: Relief. Retrieved August 13, 2017, from
• IFRC: http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/responding/services-for-the-disaster-affected/relief/
• NDMA. (2016). National Disaster Management Plan, 2016. New Delhi: National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India.
• Niazi, Z. (n.d.). Reconstruction and Rehabilitation: A response strategy for creation of sustainable livelihoods. Retrieved August 13, 2017, from http://www.devalt.org/newsletter/may01/lead.htm
• Paul, B. K. (2011). Environmental Hazards and Disasters- Contexts, Perspectives and Management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• The Sphere Project 2011. (2013). Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. The Sphere Project.
• USAID-CIDI. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2017, from https://www.cidi.org/how-disaster-relief-works/monetary-contributions-work-bestwhy-cash-is-best/#.WZJK5YpLfeQ