Preparing food aid to displaced families, Sudan
This session is the second in a series on community preparedness organised jointly by KUNO and Dutch Relief Alliance. While the first session explored the foundations of community preparedness, this session focuses on an increasingly common challenge: how can communities prepare for sudden disasters in contexts of protracted crisis?
In many parts of the world, communities live in protracted crises, where conflict, displacement, political and economic instability, and weak governance are entangled and experienced over a prolonged period. When an acute hazard strikes in these contexts, such as an earthquake, flood, or drought, it multiplies the threat and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities, resulting in slower recovery. Evidence shows that among the 400 natural hazards each year, more than 30% hit the countries already affected by conflict.
The difference between how similar hazards unfold in different contexts illustrates this challenge. For example, an earthquake in a country like Afghanistan affected by long-term conflict and institutional fragility can have far more devastating consequences than an earthquake in Japan with stronger institutions and infrastructure. This disparity reveals that disaster outcomes are not only determined by the natural event alone, but by the extent of vulnerabilities (or preparedness) that exist before it strikes.
This raises the question: how can communities in protracted crisis contexts prepare for disasters when they are already navigating ongoing crises? What role can local actors play in strengthening locally-led preparedness when national systems are weak or overstretched?
By bringing together practitioners and researchers, this session will explore how community preparedness approaches can be adapted to contexts of protracted crisis, highlighting both the potential and the limitations of locally-led preparedness efforts in fragile environments.
- Rodrigo Mena, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director, The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre, Institute of Social Studies
- DRA representative (tbc)
- DRA representative (tbc)
This session will be moderated by Julia Golterman, knowledge broker, KUNO
Please send an email to kuno@kuno-platform.nl. Kindly indicate when you are in need of translation during the session.
This session is organised in collaboration with the Dutch Relief Alliance.
– Picture Plan International –
