Reducing Risks, Saving Lives
Save the Children’s approach to Disaster Risk Reduction
and Climate Change Adaptation
savethechildren.net
Children and disasters
Above, left and right
A cyclone drill by community members and the Cyclone
Preparedness Program (CPP), Hassan Nagar Union, Bhola
District, Bangladesh
Jeff Holt / Save the Children
Middle panel, left
Operation Reach Summer Day Camp program at the
Lower Coast Algiers Community Center, Louisiana.
The goal of the workshops is to ease anxiety related
to the upcoming hurricane season by providing children
with information and resources
Susan Warner / Save the Children
Middle panel, right
Kids at the Crosstown Learning Center, Oklahoma test
new whistles included in backpacks provided to them by
Save the Children as part of their disaster preparedness
program. The backpacks contained supplies for disaster
preparedness like flashlights, hygiene items, teddy bears
and whistles
Michael Wyke / Tulsa World
Third panel, left
A young child eats some Plumpynut, a high-nutrition
food for severely malnourished children, in southern
Ethiopia. Global shortages of food and higher prices
are drastically reducing children’s access to health care,
nutrition and education which they need to thrive
Colin Crowley / Save the Children
Third panel, right
Children perform dances Vietnam as part of a flood
recovery and disaster risk reduction programme
in a preschool supported by Save the Children
in Northern Vietnam
AB Kyazze
Disasters have the biggest impact on the poorest communities and the most vulnerable
people. And it is children who bear the brunt: they may not know when to flee or where
to go; they are exposed to even greater danger if separated from their parents and families;
they may not understand what is happening and become psychologically distressed.
Longer term affects can also be felt by children, when families become food insecure and
financially insecure it can lead to children dropping out of school or becoming vulnerable to
malnutrition. In most disasters, more than half of those who are affected or die are children.
A growing threat
Over the past two decades, the number of natural disasters has doubled. Not only are
there more floods, cyclones, droughts and severe cold spells but experts also predict
the severity of these events will increase as a result of climate change and environmental
degradation. Glaciers and ice caps are melting, rainfall patterns are changing and drought
conditions are affecting more and more of the world’s land mass.
The impact of non-climate-related disasters, such as earthquakes, is also increasing, due
to urbanisation and population growth. Children’s lives and well-being are also threatened
by epidemiological disasters, such as the avian influenza pandemic, and technological
disasters, such as the Bhopal industrial catastrophe in India and the recent Fukushima
nuclear accident in Japan.
Children need not face such dire predicaments. Many of the disasters that affect children
around the world are cyclical and to some degree predictable: droughts in the Sahel and
the Horn of Africa, flooding in India and the deltas of Bangladesh, and hurricane season
in Central America and South East Asia. Whilst natural disaster cannot be prevented,
communities can be prepared and made more resilient to these events, and their impacts
can be mitigated and moderated through appropriately designed interventions.
What is Disaster Risk Reduction?
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is any activity carried out by a village, community, aid agency
or government that helps to prepare, mitigate, adapt and increase resilience toward the
impact of disasters. These activities can be legislation, policies, strategies and practices that
are developed and applied to minimise vulnerabilities and disaster risks.
DRR makes economic sense. The United Nations estimates that for every US$1 invested
in preparing for a disaster, US$7 of losses can be prevented. DRR should become part
of everyday development work, and an underlying principle by which all development
programs are judged to be climate and disaster resilient, thereby safeguarding the
development investment. Unless we invest in it now, decades of progress in poor and
disaster-prone communities could be lost.
In January 2005, 168 of the world’s governments agreed to adopt the Hyogo Framework
for Action, a global blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts during the next decade. Its
goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 – loss of lives and the loss of social,
economic, and environmental assets of communities and countries.
What is Climate Change Adaptation?
DRR saves lives
In 2007, Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh
killed around 3,500 people. But a year
later, a similarly powerful Cyclone
Nargis in Myanmar (Burma), claimed
more than 146,000 lives. Given the
similarity in geography and population
density in the two countries, why was
there such a huge difference in the
death tolls from the two disasters?
In Bangladesh, around 1.5 million
people on the coast were able to flee
to shelters before the storm hit. The
government’s early warning system
included broadcasting messages on the
radio, mobilising volunteers and making
announcements with megaphones.
The government had learned from
terrible experiences. Cyclone Gorky
hit the coast of Bangladesh in 1991,
claiming more than 138,000 lives.
Before that, in 1970, Cyclone Bhola
killed more than half a million people.
There is no scientific ambiguity to the fact that the world’s climate is warming and that this
warming over the past 50 years is attributable in part to man’s activities1. There is a wide
consensus that this warming will lead to changing rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, increased
spread of tropical disease, loss of biodiversity and increased frequency and amplitude of
weather related natural disasters.
It is recognized that there are both areas of convergence and divergences between
CCA and DRR. CCA programs, accepting the inevitability of a changing climate, are
activities which aim to make adjustments in natural and human systems in response to
actual or expected climate stimuli and their effects2. Adaptation can be as much about
exploiting beneficial opportunities as well as guarding against harm. For Save the Children,
adaptation is principally about practical measures in programming, policy and advocacy
which reduce vulnerabilities or increase resilience of children and their communities from
the negative effects of climate change. DRR and CCA are not mutually exclusive but in
fact interdependent; a CCA project may be just as vulnerable to natural hazards as any
other project and therefore needs a DRR component to protect the CCA investment. To
address the risks and uncertainty predicted by climate change, both DRR and CCA analysis
and programming must attempt to factor in the unpredictability of what may happen in the
future as the planet continues to warm.
Save the Children’s approach to DRR and CCA
Children are particularly at risk in a disaster and vulnerable to the incremental impacts of
climate change. It is essential that their immediate and longer-term survival, protection and
developmental needs are considered in any activities to prepare for or mitigate a potential
disaster, or adapt to the negative impacts of longer-term climatic trends. Communities and
local authorities need to listen to children to find out what risks they might face and how
they might respond to them.
Save the Children has pioneered child-centred DRR. Child-centred DRR means putting
children at the heart of DRR activities – recognising the specific vulnerabilities children face
from disasters, which differ to those faced by adults, and ensuring children are appropriately
planned for and addressed in DRR programs and policies. It’s also important to recognise
that children are not one homogenous group and the challenges they face from disasters
differ if they are a child under the age of five, a girl from a marginalised community or a
child living with a disability. Our programs seek to ensure that the needs and capacities of
all children are considered in how people prepare for, react to, and recover from disasters
and adapt to long term trends. We work to make this happen at all levels – with children,
communities, local and national governments and regional and international organisations.
What do DRR and CCA entail?
Most DRR and CCA work falls into five main categories:
Preparedness activities enhance people’s ability to deal with a disaster.
These include ensuring that communities and local government have emergency plans
1 IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of
Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani,
J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 7-22.
2 Based on the IPCC definition of adaptation in: IPCC TAR, 2001 a. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and
Vulnerability. IPCC Third Assessment Report, Cambridge University Press.
The children’s own role in DRR
In Cuba, as a result of
Save the Children’s DRR programme,
children conveyed early warning
messages before hurricanes to help
spread the word of impending storms.
In Brazil, Save the Children has taught
children to measure rainfall to give early
warning of floods or landslides.
In disaster-prone areas of Sri Lanka,
Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere,
children have assessed the risks they
face, helped draw up emergency
preparedness plans and maps, took
part in drills and evacuation simulation
activities, and raised awareness of the
risks among their peers and adults
in their community. As well working in
their communities, children in Thailand
and Sri Lanka have also advocated for
their national governments to cater
for children’s needs in their emergency
preparedness plans.
in place that map the hazards in a community and develop strategies to combat them,
make sure people know where to evacuate to, and pre-position emergency supplies,
such as food and shelter materials in disaster-prone areas. For example, in Afghanistan,
Save the Children works with communities so that they understand the risks of flooding,
especially for children, and how they can prepare themselves ahead of time. In Vietnam,
we help children take part in community meetings to assess risks and hazards; children
produce risk maps and action plans for schools. Leveraging our skills and experience in the
education sector, much of Save the Children’s preparedness work is conducted through
school-based DRR programs that then extend into surrounding communities.
Early warning activities give people time to respond to a disaster.
An early response, particularly to slow-onset disasters such as droughts, is not only
cheaper but more effective. By responding early, families are able to protect their
livelihoods and are therefore in a stronger position to recover. In Ethiopia, Save the
Children has worked with the government since the1980s to both analyse vulnerability
and run early warning systems for food crises. And in Sri Lanka, we worked with districtlevel disaster management committees and provided megaphones and loudspeakers to
be used as part of early warning systems. Save the Children continues to develop and
implement better vulnerability analysis and early warning systems. We are currently
working with Action Contre la Faim to strengthen integrated food security and nutrition
surveillance systems that support better early warning for food price increases.
Mitigation activities reduce the risks from disasters.
Vietnamese children who participate in our DRR program have identified areas where
flooding was a risk to them and their communities. They have also come up with ways of
reducing the risk, such as building embankments and strengthening bridges. In Myanmar
(Burma), Save the Children is helping to reinforce schools, ensuring children and adults
will have a safe place to seek shelter in the event of another cyclone. And in India Save the
Children has constructed child-friendly disaster shelters in flood and earthquake prone
districts and in a coastal areas the local community was hired to build a 5 km sea wall to
mitigate the risk of flooding and speed up the natural desalination of agricultural land.
Activities to promote resilience enhance communities’ capacity to cope and
recover after a disaster strikes.
Save the Children has pioneered the Household Economy Approach (HEA), which can
predict food crises by understanding the impacts of droughts on the ability of different
groups of people to access food for their families. As part of our work in social protection,
we annually transfer food or cash to reduce the risk of food crisis among poor families.
We are also piloting innovative approaches to insurance to protect vital assets of the
poorest people. In Zimbabwe, due to the increased of droughts, we encouraged farmers
to use drought-resistant crops.
Activities that support communities’ adaptive capacity to predicted
climate change trends.
Save the Children is working with communities to enhance their resilience and support
adaptation to the impacts of climate change. In Mozambique, our cash grants and training
is supporting diversification away from natural resources-based livelihoods. We are also
conducting operational research on how to improve water management to mitigate the
Left
Students at Ban Talaynork School in Ranong province,
Thailand, crosscheck a “risk and resource” community
map they developed showing areas that are at risk
and those that are safe
Save the Children
Right
Fatema, a water and sanitation field facilitator, instructs
Limon and Nayeem, both age eight, on proper hand
washing techniques at a school-based awareness session
in Bangladesh
Jeff Holt / Save the Children
effects of climate change. In Guatemala, Save the Children works in watershed protection
involving activities such as nursery establishment and management, the formation of
community committees to monitor watersheds, and tree planting. We are working with
the Tropical Forest Group to explore opportunities for climate finance in the rangelands
of Ethiopia. Save the Children is also a member of the Africa Climate Change Resilience
Alliance (ACCRA) with Oxfam, CARE, World Vision and the Overseas Development
Institute (ODI) which seeks to understand how existing social protection, livelihoods and
DRR interventions build adaptive capacity. In addition, we are a member of a number of
global and regional consortia which collectively try to increase the evidence base of the
impact of Climate Change on children and communities. Information gathered is used to
influence governmental policies and national development practice.
Save the Children reduces risk through five areas of focus:
Advocacy and Policy – ensuring that government plans take into account the needs
of children in disasters. For example, in Vietnam, to ensure that the needs of children are
considered Save the Children has successfully advocated for and supported the participation
of the Head of the Children’s Division from the Department of Social Welfare in the
National Disaster Committee. In Asia Save the Children is part of a ASEAN Partnership
Group (APG) which is a consortium of international NGOs that supports the implantation
of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER)
which is a regional action plan for the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action.
We are also working closely with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) to develop a children and disasters framework.
Institution Strengthening – ensuring that relevant institutions are able to implement
effective policy around children and disasters and CCA. For example, in Indonesia, Save the
Children has piloted primary school curriculum around DRR and worked with the Ministry
of National Education to develop a national curriculum and teacher trainer guides. Similar
work is being carried out in Laos, Timor Leste and the Philippines.
Local Government & Partners Capacity Building – ensuring that these crucial agencies
have the skills necessary to protect children during their preparation for disasters and
their response. For example, in Colombia, we trained community leaders and local
authorities on child protection in emergencies to ensure that children’s needs and rights
are considered in preparing for and responding to disaster.
Community – empowering communities and families to mitigate identified risks of
disasters. For example, Save the Children works with community based DRR committees
to conduct hazard, vulnerability mapping exercises and develop DRR preparedness plans
and strategies to reduce disaster risk. We also ensure children are represented in these
groups so their voices are heard. In Tajikistan, communities are given small grants to plan
out mitigation activities which decrease the vulnerability children face during a disaster.
Left
A young girl plays at school in Northern Vietnam.
Save the Children is focusing on DRR work in Vietnam
following severe floods in October 2007, which destroyed
harvests and forced many people to leave their homes.
AB Kyazze
Right
A young boy works on a map of his village in the
Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar (Burma). Save the Children
is helping children identify the dangerous areas and safer
places if there is another cyclone. Two thirds of the
children in the village were killed when Cyclone Nargis
swept across the delta in May 2008
Tina Salsbury / Save the Children
Front cover
Tin Lin Htun (right), eight, works on a map of his village
in the Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar (Burma). Tin Lin Htun
survived Cyclone Nargis by clinging onto a log. His parents
also survived but he lost three siblings.
Children’s Role in Disasters – allowing for the meaningful participation of children
to increase their resilience. For example, in the United States of America, our school-based
program focuses on children creating family plans and builds on children’s natural potential for
resilience. In Myanmar (Burma), children take part in developing community maps and illustrating
the safest place in the village in the event of another cyclone. In Mozambique, Save the Children
has developed and distributed the ‘River Board Game’, an informative and stimulating way to
teach children about the risk of disasters and how to protect themselves. We also ensure we
reach children who are out of school through clubs and community activities.
Moving forward
Save the Children has made DRR a priority. Over the past five years we have implemented
DRR and CCA programs in over 35 countries. We aim to invest the equivalent of 10 per
cent of our global emergency response funding on DRR and CCA activities. We currently
have a solid and expanding base of DRR and CCA programs in education, child protection,
livelihoods and emergency response, and we aim to increase our DRR and CCA
programming in health and nutrition to mirror our program priorities.
Save the Children will seek to incorporate DRR and CCA into its program planning
worldwide so that they become standard practice at the local level. We will also build an
evidence base for DRR and CCA models that are replicable, scalable and can be easily
introduced in other countries.
Our recommendations
• Governments need to support an age appropriate, child-centred approach to Disaster
Risk Reduction that focuses on the specific risks faced by children.
• Donors and Governments should commit to investing funding in DRR before an
emergency happens to build resilience of children and communities. Climate Change
Adaptation funding should also include DRR as a priority theme and ensure funds directly
reach vulnerable children and communities.
• Donors and national governments need to adopt legal frameworks to make vital
infrastructure including schools, hospitals and housing disaster resilient to save children’s
lives in emergencies.
• National Adaptation Programs for Action (NAPAs) must make explicit reference to
how projected trends of climate change will impact on children and how the NAPAs will
reduce this impact.
• Existing frameworks such as the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child
must be upheld to protect children’s rights during disasters.
• The links between Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, livelihoods and
social protection need to be strengthened to ensure better outcomes for children and
build resilience to disasters and climate change.
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