improving our understanding & potential for community engagement
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Transcript improving our understanding & potential for community engagement
IMPROVING OUR UNDERSTANDING &
POTENTIAL FOR COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT IN DISASTER RISK
REDUCTION
Jessica Petersen – Canterbury CDEM Group
William Hurtes – University of Canterbury
Chris Webb – Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
Tertiary Community Engagement Summit
30 August 2013
Christchurch, New Zealand
Key Components
Disaster risk reduction
Community engagement
Disaster Risk Reduction
What is it?
Identifying and analysing long term risks from hazards
Taking steps to eliminate and/or reducing their likelihood and
consequences
Why is it important?
National CDEM Strategy
Promotes sustainable management of hazards
Encourages acceptable levels of risk
Current Situation
Largely driven by local authorities
Community Engagement
How long is a piece of string?
Questions & debates abound
What is a community?
Engaging the community?
Informing; consulting;
An engaged community
Empowerment
Participatory community involvement
So why engage the community in
disaster risk reduction?
Disasters:
impact on people
affect and disrupt communities
disrupt the systems that serve, organise and sustain
communities
notion of resilience implies individual, group &
community action prior to, during and following a
disaster
Key points emerging
Potentially Community Engagement provides:
Better understanding of the risks
Opportunity for more control over the risks
Complementary approach to “top down” planning
Joined up thinking rather than stitched up thinking (Shaw, 2005)
More effective use of local resources
Potential for integrating the views of multiple stakeholders
Greater level of trust between communities and local authorities
However it is challenging to:
Identify & represent the social diversity of communities
Clearly define a community – confusion & lack of focussed
action
Balance the focus on majority rule & that of minority groups
Communities are not internally homogeneous, nor
harmonious
Develop the competencies & social resources
Align & balance community perceptions & interpretations
Personalise and disseminate hazard information
It is not a PANACEA but....
It does offer a range of opportunities for progressive risk
reduction measures
Can allow the coming together of lay and technical expertise
Has the potential to bring risk reduction measures closer to
the local level
Has the potential to make policy makers and planners more
accountable
Level of engagement will depend on context & aims of those
initiating the risk assessments
Community engagement
approaches:
Is to understand and give voice to local
perceptions of risk reality through local
people’s own analysis of challenges and
capacities.
Engagement
1. What is your group’s understanding of
community?
2. What types of communities should to be
involved in the DRR process?
3. What do we perceive engagement to be in this
context?
4. What strategies could you recommend to meet
the DRR & community engagement objectives?
Jessica Petersen
Canterbury CDEM Group
03 379 9481
[email protected]
William Hurtes
University of Canterbury
027 344 4068
[email protected]
Chris Webb
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
9 921 9999 ext 7677
[email protected]