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An Evaluation of Participatory Damage Assessment Policy and Practice in Fiji

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An Evaluation of Participatory Damage Assessment Policy and Practice in Fiji An Evaluation of Participatory Damage Assessment Policy and Practice in Fiji Kirstie Méheux, BSc (Hons), MSc Department of Physical Geography Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney November 2007 This thesis is presented in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Community participation in disaster management...................................................................2 1.2 Complexity of community participation and a need for critical reflection ................................. 3 1.3 Community participation in disaster management in Fiji..........................................................4 1.4 Key research questions............................................................................................................ 5 1.5 Research approach and selection of case study site............................................................... 5 1.6 Thesis structure........................................................................................................................ 6 2 Participation and Damage Assessment.........................................................................................9 2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Community participation and disaster management................................................................9 2.3 Interpreting community participation ......................................................................................12 2.4 Analysing and characterising community participation ..........................................................16 2.5 Trends in participatory disaster management........................................................................21 2.5.1 What project stages do people participate in? ..............................................................21 2.5.2 Who participates in participatory disaster management? .............................................22 2.5.3 How is participation occurring? .....................................................................................23 2.5.4 The influence of context and nature of task on participation (participation is ‘situated’ in its context)....................................................................................................................................24 2.6 Participation and the disaster cycle........................................................................................25 2.7 Challenges to participatory disaster management.................................................................25 2.7.1 Dominance of command and control approaches to disaster management.................26 2.7.2 Government fear of participation ...................................................................................26 2.7.3 Time, cost and multiple demands placed on disaster management practitioners ........ 27 2.7.4 Community willingness/availability to participate ..........................................................27 2.7.5 Community capacity for decision making and consensus.............................................27 2.8 The damage assessment process .........................................................................................28 2.9 The role of affected communities in damage assessments...................................................34 2.10 Analytical framework for investigating participation in damage assessments...................36 2.11 Summary............................................................................................................................ 37 3 Disaster management in Fiji ........................................................................................................ 39 3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 39 3.2 Socio-political context ............................................................................................................ 39 3.2.1 Ethnic diversity ..............................................................................................................39 3.2.2 Political instability ..........................................................................................................40 3.3 Natural hazards in Fiji ............................................................................................................ 42 3.3.1 Tropical Cyclone............................................................................................................42 3.3.2 Flooding......................................................................................................................... 45 3.3.3 Earthquake ....................................................................................................................45 i 3.3.4 Tsunami......................................................................................................................... 45 3.3.5 Landslide ....................................................................................................................... 46 3.3.6 Drought.......................................................................................................................... 47 3.4 Historical disaster management in Fiji ...................................................................................47 3.4.1 Pre-cession and early government disaster management............................................47 3.4.2 Post-independence disaster management....................................................................48 3.5 Contemporary Disaster Management ....................................................................................49 3.6 Community participation in disaster management................................................................. 51 3.7 Summary................................................................................................................................ 53 4 Research Approach ..................................................................................................................... 55 4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 55 4.2 Ethnographic approach ..........................................................................................................55 4.3 Iterative-inductive research .................................................................................................... 56 4.4 Data collection methods......................................................................................................... 57 4.4.1 Site selection and village-based data collection............................................................60 4.4.2 Totoya data collection (participant observation of a damage assessment) .................. 68 4.4.3 Kadavu data collection (participant observation of a village-based Initial Damage Assessment (IDA) training course) ..............................................................................................69 4.4.4 Suva and Labasa (Government officers, regional and national NGOs, UN bodies)..... 70 4.4.5 Suva (National Disaster Management Office (NDMO)) ................................................ 70 4.4.6 Research Assistants......................................................................................................71 4.5 Ethics...................................................................................................................................... 72 4.5.1 Anonymity of participants ..............................................................................................72 4.6 Researcher positionality......................................................................................................... 73 4.7 Data recording, analysis and presentation.............................................................................74 4.8 Summary................................................................................................................................ 74 5 Experiences of damage assessments .........................................................................................77 5.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 77 5.2 Tropical Cyclone Ami, Tuesday, 14 January, 2003 ...............................................................77 5.2.1 Government assessment............................................................................................... 81 5.2.2 Local assessments ........................................................................................................86 5.2.3 Contact with government surveyors - Cicia...................................................................87 5.2.4 Contact with government assessors - Vunimoli and Korotari........................................90 5.2.5 Key issues in the experience of Tropical Cyclone Ami damage assessments ............. 93 5.3 Damage assessment in Totoya, 18 June 2005......................................................................93 5.3.1 Government assessment..............................................................................................
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