Let Our Children Teach Us! A Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction Prepared by Ben Wisner On behalf of the ISDR system Thematic Cluster/Platform on Knowledge and Education1 July 2006 Let Our Children Teach Us! A Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction Published by Books for Change 139, Richmond Road Bangalore–560 025. India Phone: +91-80-25580346 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.booksforchange.net Copyleft : This publication may be used in any form. Please feel free to quote, translate, distribute and transmit. Kindly acknowledge the source. Acknowledgements The ISDR system thematic cluster/platform on knowledge and education and its associates would like to acknowledge the many individual and institutional contributions received from around the world. The material appearing in the report, commissioned by ActionAid for the ISDR system thematic cluster/platform on knowledge and education, and prepared by Professor Ben Wisner, solicited inputs from organizations, experts and individuals in addition to publicly available information. Valuable contributions were made by the members of the ISDR system thematic cluster/platform on knowledge and education and its associates, ISDR secretariat regional outreach offices, experts on the issue of education and disaster risk reduction, the participants to the “Discussion of Debt for Safety Swapping” and to the experts that replied to the “Mini-Questionnaire on Training Experiences”. Financial Support The production of this review drew on the generosity of ActionAid – within the DFID supported project “Disaster Risk Reduction through Schools” – Council of Europe, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, ISDR secretariat, ProVention Consortium, UNESCO. Contents 1. Executive Summary 1 2. Introduction 4 2.1 Purpose of this review 4 2.2 The Hyogo Framework for Action 4 2.3 The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 4 2.4 The big picture 6 2.5 Definition of terms 7 2.5.1 Concerning “education” 7 2.5.2 Concerning “knowledge” 7 2.5.3 Concerning “action” 7 2.5.4 Concerning a “critical” and “strategic” review 7 2.5.5 A strategic turning point? 8 3. Formal education 9 3.1 Curriculum and teaching practice: key elements of a complex system 10 3.2 In and around the primary and secondary classroom 11 3.2.1 Examples of teaching practice 12 3.2.2 Curriculum: additional resources and key concerns 21 3.2.3 Exchange of teaching experience and materials 22 3.2.4 Pedagogical innovations 22 3.2.5 Education in emergency situations 23 3.2.6 Connecting with children and youth at play and leisure 24 3.2.7 Youth voluntary activities 25 3.2.8 Inspiring and supporting girls 26 3.2.9 Reaching street children and working children 27 3.2.10 Putting it all together: the global actors 28 3.3 Tertiary education 30 3.3.1 Link between research and policy 30 3.3.2 Resources, support for higher education in disaster risk reduction 31 3.4 Protecting educational infrastructure 32 3.4.1 Community perceptions of risk and priorities 32 3.4.2 The threat to schools 33 3.4.3 Country experiences with school protection 36 3.4.4 Non-structural protection measures 44 3.4.5 Resources for school protection 44 4. Training courses 47 5. Informal education and communication 51 5.1 Community-based disaster management 52 5.2 Adult literacy 52 5.3 Media and risk awareness 54 5.3.1 Through a glass darkly? 54 5.3.2 Role of media: awareness, education or consciousness raising? 55 5.3.3 Broadcasting 55 5.3.4 Print media 55 5.3.5 Electronic journalism 56 5.3.6 Observances and campaigns 56 5.3.7 Media foundations and resources 57 6. Knowledge management 59 6.1 Scientific knowledge and research 60 6.1.1 New paradigms, bridging and new connections 60 6.1.2 Conventional sites of knowledge creation 61 6.2 Knowledge networks 62 7. Action 65 7.1 Gaps and opportunities 66 7.1.1 Primary and secondary education 66 7.1.2 Tertiary education 67 7.1.3 Training 67 7.1.4 Protecting educational infrastructure 66 7.1.5 Community-based disaster management 68 7.1.6 Media, communication and risk awareness 69 7.1.7 Scientific knowledge and research 69 7.1.8 Knowledge networks 69 7.2 Focal points 70 7.3 Short-term targets 71 7.3.1 Primary and secondary education 71 7.3.2 Tertiary education 72 7.3.3 School protection 72 7.3.4 Training 72 7.3.5 Informal education 72 7.3.6 Mass media 72 7.3.7 Research 72 7.3.8 Knowledge management 72 7.4 Strategy 73 7.4.1 Cross-cutting and overarching strategy 73 7.4.2 Focused strategic starting points 74 7.4.3 What can stakeholders do? 74 8. References 77 9. Annexures 83 1 Terms of reference for this review 84 2 Excerpt from the Hyogo Framework of Action: Priorities for Action 86 3 Overview of the Hyogo Framework 90 4 Major gaps identified by Global Survey of Early Warning Systems 92 5 A rough approximation of the cost of safe schools 100 6 Conditions of homeless and working children 102 7 Child to child trust guidelines 106 8 ISDR system thematic cluster/platform on knowledge and education 110 9 ActionAid school project focal points 114 10 Highlights of other national experiences with RDD teaching 116 11 Discussion of “debt for safety swapping” 120 12 Mini-questionnaire on training experiences 124 Endnotes 129 Executive Summary CHAPTER 1 1 Let Our Children Teach Us! A Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction 1. This review covers the key activities relative to HIV/AIDS , violence, declining life the Priority 3 of the Hyogo Framework for expectancy and disability-adjusted life years Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of (DALYs)]. Nations and Communities to Disasters, broadly: ● Scientific dominance by most developed ● Knowledge management. countries and transitional countries ● Education. (heavily-indebted poor countries and Africa ● Risk awareness. left behind). (see annex 2 for the full text of the Priority for Action 3). ● Information and communications technology imbalances (“digital divide”). 2. Among the many topics ranging from university ● Persistent natural science/social science research and training to primary school curricula split (the “two cultures”). and the media’s treatment of risk reduction, ● Gap between research and action three subjects are most urgent and central: (“the last mile”). ● Teaching about hazards and risk reduction in schools. 7. School curricula today: ● Schools as centres for community based ● Many focus on earth science. disaster risk reduction. ● Many focus on preparedness and drills. ● Physical protection of schools from natural ● Few integrate the two. hazards. ● Fewer develop their own local curriculum. ● Far fewer go outside and study the school’s 3. At all levels, pupils and students, from primary hazards and the communities. school to post-graduate study, can actively study the safety of their own schools and work with But this is where the potential lies! teachers and community members to find ways 8. There are also gaps and opportunities in to protect them. They can also spread the research and higher education: methods of participatory vulnerability and ● All levels of education and research can be capacity assessment and hazard mapping to the better linked with each other. broader communities surrounding schools and ● Available science and local knowledge can other institutions of education and research. be applied. 4. However, there are constraints on such a ● South-south networking can improve. strategy for rapidly accelerating public ● Bottom up (students, teachers and consciousness of risk and school protection: communities) and top down (government, ● The Education Millennium Development United Nations, international Goal is not being met. organizations, non-governmental ● Teachers receive low pay and are poorly organizations) can be better connected. supported. ● Schools themselves may be in dangerous 9. The review finds a great deal of good practice locations, and unprotected from high wind, around the world and much sharing of flash flooding, landslides, storm surges and experience; however, gaps and unrealized earthquakes. opportunities are also documented. 5. The Kashmir earthquake in 2005 killed 17,000 10. The review ends with a section on strategy that school children. There have also been many should provide the basis for a concerted effort “near misses,” when earthquakes have destroyed on the three priority areas identified in item schools when children were not inside. number one above: promotion of more and better teaching about hazards and risk 6. There are other constraints on school based reduction, development of schools into models vulnerability and capacity assessment: and centres of participatory risk reduction in ● Brain drain and brains down the drain their communities, and the protection of [Unemployment/mal-employment, schools against multiple hazards. 2 Introduction CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER 2.1 Purpose of this review CHAPTER CHAPTER 22 2.2 The Hyogo Framework for Action 2.3 The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2.4 The big picture 2.5 Definition of terms 2.5.1 Concerning “education” 2.5.2 Concerning “knowledge” 2.5.3 Concerning “action” 2.5.4 Concerning a “critical” and “strategic” review 2.5.5 A strategic turning point? Let Our Children Teach Us! A Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction 2.1 Purpose of this review 2.2 The Hyogo Framework for Action This review examines good practices to reduce Work on this report began one year after adoption disaster risk through education, knowledge and of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: innovation (including efforts to protect schools Building the Resilience of Nations and from extreme natural events).2 It looks critically and Communities to Disasters (the “Hyogo strategically at current activities in order to identify Framework”) as a review of good practices around gaps, opportunities in the form of synergisms and education, knowledge and innovation for disaster partnerships, and centres of innovation.