National Risk Reduction Plan: A Critical Evaluation Essay

This assignment provides a detailed Disaster Risk Management plan, evaluating the process of formulating and writing a national risk reduction plan as part of an integrated emergency plan. It covers relevant principles, operating procedures, associated protocols, and policy domains related to the development of sustainable risk reduction as a key component of national resilience. The essay discusses the process of formulating a National Risk Reduction plan, exploring policy domains at international, national, regional, and local levels. It addresses stakeholder involvement, hazard agreement, and risk assessment, comparing two plans to identify weaknesses and strengths. Furthermore, it examines the opportunities and challenges for developing national risk reduction strategies and possibilities for future enhancement.

Disaster Risk Management Plan

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Course Work 1.............................................................................................................................................2
Part 1.......................................................................................................................................................2
The process of formulation and emergency plan................................................................................2
Policy domain and the relevant principles operating procedures.......................................................5
Disaster management plans................................................................................................................9
Part 2.....................................................................................................................................................13
Critical evaluation of the weaknesses and threats............................................................................13
Coursework 2............................................................................................................................................15
Opportunity and challenges for the development of national risk reduction strategies.......................15
Opportunity for development of risk reduction strategies....................................................................15
Challenges in the development of the ownership.................................................................................16
Possibilities for the enhancement in future...........................................................................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References.................................................................................................................................................18
Table of Figures
Figure 1: National Disaster Management...................................................................................................6
Figure 2: State-level disaster management process...................................................................................7
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Introduction
Disaster Risk Management plan is a documented process that is used to address disaster risk.
These risks are potential losses of life, damaged assets and injuries. In other word, this plan
uses administrative decision, operational skills, and capacities to implement strategies and
policies in order to lessen impact of natural as well as manmade hazards. Disaster Risk
Management plan is essential, as it is vital for building sustainable and equitable future. It can
be considered as necessary part of some systematic efforts to increase resilience towards
disasters. The assignment will focus on the key issues relating to formulating, implementing and
writing an emergency plan. Potential and real implications for the wider uses of disaster
management training are covered in this assignment. The process of formulating and writing a
relevant national risk reduction plan is incorporated here. In addition to this, two plans will be
compared based on their strengths and weaknesses. Opportunities and challenges faced by
policy makers with respect to development of national risk reduction strategies are illustrated
in this assignment.
Course Work 1
Part 1
The process of formulation of emergency plan
An emergency plan is prepared to react to a risk or threat efficiently and effectively. This plan
includes planned procedures, disaster staffs and informed staffs. It maps out the process of
resuming normal business process, recording various data, reconstructing. The goal of this plan
is to create a culture of preparedness and awareness as well as to develop resilience for people.
The plan can be considered as a guide for employees and managers during and after a disaster.
Disaster management plan is prepared by a recovery committee, which includes
representatives from different critical departments. It must include representatives from risk
management, security, record management, building maintenance and computing department
(Paton and Johnston, 2017). The plan needs to spell out function and titles of each team
member associated with disaster recovery process. In addition to this, the emergency plan
must include certain methods for communicating vendors, supplies, support agencies
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alternates, consultants and departments with whom disaster agreements and contracts are in
effect.
The disaster management plan is provided for both minor and major disasters. It must address
community wide and individual natural disasters. The disaster plan must include initial and
ongoing training provision for members involved in recovery process (Fekete et al., 2014). Skills
are highly needed in salvage and reconstruction phase of the recovery process. The objectives
of disaster risk management plan are as follows.
 Execute efficient and rapid response during an emergency situation
 Provide continuous and uninterrupted education
 Reduce disaster risk in different areas
Key elements involved in emergency plan are preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.
Preparedness includes preparing some protective measures before disaster events. Response
includes implementing emergency procedures, which can lessen the impact of disasters.
Recovery means repairing any damage occurred due to disasters. The fourth element is
mitigation, which involves identifying the causes of disasters.
The steps involved in process of formulation of emergency plan are as follows.
To establish a planning team: There must be a group in charge of formulating emergency
plans, in order to be ready when required. Participation of each member in the planning team is
mandatory for making improvements in the emergency plan. A mission statement needs to be
issued to demonstrate organization’s commitment towards emergency management. The
planning team should develop an initial budget to meet the expenses required during
development process.
Analyze hazards and capabilities: This step is about collecting and gathering information
regarding current capabilities and possible hazards. A vulnerability analysis must be conducted
in order to determine facility’s capabilities for handling risks and hazards. Certain documents
are required to initiate this step such as risk management plan, security procedures, and
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process safety assessment. The planning team needs to identify local, state and federal
regulations for smooth operation of emergency planning.
Develop the plan: This step includes facility’s approach to core elements of emergency
management such as communication, life safety, recovery and restoration and property
protection. The team has to coordinate with other organizations to assist in development of
emergency plan. It is essential to determine local and state requirements as well as
incorporating those into procedures. Another duty of the planning team is to share certain
sections with Government agencies for approval.
Implement the plan: Implementation of plan is more than just exercising plans during
emergencies. It means acting on certain recommendations made during vulnerability analysis
and integrating a particular plan into organization’s operation and evaluating that plan.
Review the plan periodically: The final step is all about reviewing the plan from time to time.
This needs to be done after each emergency. The planning team should carefully analyze when
procedures and changes should be made and how much change is required to handle the next
emergency effectively.
Key issues associated with formulation of emergency plan
 It is hard to determine amount of resources available for recovery
 Differences in views of team members
 Lack of financial resources to implement a plan
 It is hard to organize everything during implementation of plan
 Commitment is considered to be an issue with respect to exercising plans
 Lack of proper communication among team members can lead to formulation of a poor
emergency plan
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are organizations and individuals having a stake in the outcome of a particular
risk. They are directly responsible for reducing specific community risk. They have important
information for assessing and mapping risks. During development of a disaster plan, Disaster
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managers and specialists set a priority and focus on partnership building in order to coordinate
multiple agencies, Government and society.
Key stakeholders involved in disaster management plan are emergency managers, ESF lead,
transportation officials, first responders, decision makers, private sector partners, volunteer
organizations and others. These stakeholders cooperate with each other for making decisions
and designing operational, contingency and strategic plans. They execute emergency orders
and response operations. ESF leads and emergency managers gather important players,
recommend specific actions and provide resources for facilitating emergency operations.
Transportation officials provide and order traffic operation resources for recovery process.
Decision makers collect information and provide appropriate recommendations for rescue
process. First responders are major stakeholders and considered as first line of response. These
stakeholders include fire, police, and emergency medical officers (Djalante, 2012). They
coordinate with volunteers and provide knowledge on local area. Volunteer organizations serve
as local assets after or during disasters. They provide relief services as well as support services.
They open staff shelters during disasters. Private sectors partners provide technical and
personnel assistance along with supplies and equipments. Another important stakeholder is
civil society. These stakeholders play important role during disasters. They involve in activities
like food, supplies, equipments and transportation. They engage in contingency planning for
providing best services to victims during and after disasters.
Agreeing Hazards
Disasters occurring due to certain natural forces are called as natural hazards. Individuals and
community have no control over such hazards. Such hazards cause numerous losses to property
and life. Common natural hazards are droughts, cyclones, floods and cyclones such as volcanic
eruptions, wildfires and Tsunamis. Disasters causing due to mishandling of dangerous
equipments and carelessness of human is called as manmade hazards. Some examples of
manmade hazards are plane crashes, train accidents, collapse of bridges, buildings, tunnels and
others. Both natural and manmade hazards have significant impact on environmental, social
and economic condition of a country (McCall, 2012).
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Assessing risk
Risk assessment is defined as the process of determining the nature and extent of risk through
analyzing hazards and evaluating conditions of vulnerability that could harm exposed services,
property, people, environment and the livelihood (Rausand, , 2013). A comprehensive risk
assessment evaluates likelihood and magnitude of potential losses. It also helps in
understanding the impact and cause of looses occurred by different disasters. There are five
steps involved in risk assessment.
Identify the hazards: This step includes identifying a potential hazard that can cause losses. It is
essential to identify location, nature, likelihood and intensity of hazards.
Decide who might be harmed: It is required to identify and analyze the things and lives that can
get harm due to certain hazards. This step should be performed for each hazard. Disaster risk
management team can prepare themselves for rescuing victims affected by such disasters.
Evaluate the risks and identify precautions: This step estimates potential losses of and their
impacts on society. The team can identify precautions through evaluating such risks. These
precautions many include transportation facility, arrangement of shelters and supply for food
and non food items.
Record findings and implement: By evaluating the risk, the management team keeps record on
analysis. After that, the team takes major steps to implement the disaster management plan
effectively.
Review risk assessment: After a successful implementation, it is necessary to think on the
assessment again. The management team needs to review the assessment from time to time.
Risk assessment should remain up to date. The required improvements should be done
immediately to deal with further hazards (Rausand, 2013).
Policy domain and the relevant principles operating procedures
Disaster management procedures detail all processes for identification, treatment analysis,
monitoring and reporting of risks. There are four principles that cover all aspects of operating
procedures. The first principle involved in operating procedures of disaster management is
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avoiding risk. The feasibility of risk management approach is dependent upon complexity of
operation, legal requirements to eliminate risk along with financial and opportunity cost. If any
activity or operation is found to be the cause of disaster, then it should be eliminated and
avoided before it is approaching (Paton and Johnston, 2017). The second principle is about
assessing the risk, which means identifying, analyzing, evaluating and controlling risks. Effective
methods should be undertaken for assessing certain risks. Control measures should be carried
out against the hazardous situation. The third principle is all about monitoring and reviewing
control measures, whether they are successful in controlling the situation. The fourth principle
focuses on keeping record on hazard management. The record should contain each aspect of
hazard management such as type of hazard, control measures and exposures.
Disaster management policies recognize different changes that contribute to increasing
vulnerability to disasters. It also identifies the influences of disasters on lives and livelihood of
different communities. The policy aims at institutionalizing certain mechanisms to deal with
disasters. It emphasizes preparedness on the part of communities, Government and
stakeholders and the sole purpose is to strengthen disaster management organizations. Some
major policies under disaster management are risk management policy, quality management
policy and others (Paton and Johnston, 2017). All these policies focus on relief, preparedness,
rehabilitation, mitigation and prevention involving diversification of vulnerable livelihood. The
aims of such policies are as follows.
 Promoting behavioral change towards disaster management
 Establishing evaluation and management system
 Establishing integrated approach towards disaster management
Policy domains are described in four levels such as international, national, regional and local.
International
According to the policy International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) of United
Nations coined between the years 1990-1999, many experts from numerous fields and
departments shaped the global frameworks of risks and particularly those of disasters and their
overall management. Some of the major concepts of included within the particular policy are
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mainly hazard, exposures, and risk, so that the overall sustainable development is guaranteed
within the communities worldwide.
Another policy that was sanctioned particularly in favor of disaster-risk management is World
Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR). The particular policy was sanctioned within Kobe,
Japan in January 2008 among the United Nations offices for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
and the national government of Japan. The framework generally included 168 Member states
with which it was possible to mark an objective of catalyzing national as well as the local efforts
to reduce the risk for disaster, so that international cooperation among the global nations is
guaranteed (Chan, 2015).
Among the major policies and frameworks, SENDAI framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is
considered one of the major and renowned frameworks in order to reduce the risk for disasters
in an international approach. The main aim and objective of the particular framework was to
maintain sustainability through smooth reduction of risks for disasters in contrast to live hood,
health, economic, physical, social, cultural and ecological aspects of the individuals,
organizations, communities and the overall nations through completing the four distinct
priorities for action and seven international targets of disaster-risk management.
National
The following plans that were supplied as case studies for the overall project of disaster-risk
management are connected to disaster-risk management within the national boundaries of two
nations Ghana and Botswana respectively. The contribution of both the plans towards
sustainability and disaster-risk reductions in a national context is described below:
Ghana Disaster-Risk management Plan
In order to understand how the national government of Ghana managed the disaster risks, first
it is mandatory to coin out what the major disaster risks presently are occurring within the
particular nation. Some of the major risks are as follows:
 Pest and Insect Infestations
 Disease epidemics
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 Fire disasters
 Hydro meteorological disasters
 Geological disasters
 Ethnic conflicts
 Wars
 Aviation and marine accidents
 Water pollution of seas and other water bodies
 Oil spillage and others
The overall plan is broadly divided into three phases:
Pre-Disaster Phase
Within the particular phase, the responsible members associated within the overall plan are
said to identify hazardous and other harmful emergencies and according to that, they have to
coin out the major safe havens. In favor of disaster risk reduction, the responsible members
have to educate and train in order to make the citizens of Ghana aware of the causalities that
are caused due to the disasters (Samaddar et al., 2015).
Emergency Phase
After the first stage, the members have to form essentially the risks factors that are required to
understand the scope of disaster generations. Within the particular phase, the responsible
members are seemed to restore the utility services evaluating the crises.
Post Disaster Phase
Lastly, within the particular phase, the members have to continue the procedure of restoration
that was once striated in the previous phase and the national government shall incorporate to
construct accommodation structures.
Botswana Disaster-Risk management Plan
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The particular plan is similar to the above in defining the most common risks that are involved
within the disasters within the national boundaries of Botswana. The major national
governmental bodies and aspects that are associated with the plan are mainly: The constitution of Botswana Emergency Power act National Po0licy Disaster management Finance and Audit Act of 1996 Hyogo Framework for action (2005-2015) SADC regional water policy
The Office of the President of the nation is said to be responsible majorly for ensuring the
security, safety, social and economic well-being within the national boundary Botswana. The
National Committee on Disaster management (NCDM) has the major role to advise the office of
the president in order to require the declaration statements when a state is involved within an
emergency posed due to the disaster or number of disasters (Krüger et al., 2015).
Regional
Among the major regional departments, only the SOPAC division of SPC is recognized to have
connection with the disaster risk management (DRM) systems along with the close
relationships of regional cooperation. Within the regional boundaries of major continents, most
of the nations have developed concern for promoting sustainable growth through reduced risks
generation of disasters (Pal and Shaw, 2018). They have seemed to developed weather
forecasting and early warning systems within the regional boundaries, so that they are able to
mitigate the risk generated due to the disasters. There are seem to developed scope for the
geographical focused technical developed organizations that are responsible to recognize the
need for disaster planning in a much wider ratio, so that larger part of the populations are
saved within the regional boundaries of those nations.
Local
Within the local boundaries of certain nations and regional groups, the bodies that are
associated with the identification of risks disasters, are seemed to adopt the Disaster Risk
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Reduction (DRR) system along with the miniature systems, afforded by the local groups. The
particular system is prominent in providing sustainable development within the local cities and
towns (Scolobig et al., 2015).
Disaster management plans
SWOT Analysis of the plans
SWOT Analysis of Ghana disaster risk management plan
Strengths Weaknesses
 Ghana risk management plan includes
a number of natural and manmade
disaster fields such as fire, epidemics,
geological, war, and pollution of
water bodies and oil spillage, in such a
detailed manner that it is considered
a unique but highly applicable
document (Oteng-Ababio, 2013)
 This disaster management plan is
divided into three phases and each
phase takes different responsibilities
during hazard situations for which all
activities become easy to operate.
Plan can be undertaken by every
organization due to its simplicity
 The plan highlights hazard mapping as
a preliminary activity to risk
assessment and vulnerability,
whereas specific training and
education program provides detailed
information for public awareness. It
facilitates preparedness planning and
risk reduction so that people can get
in depth knowledge on hazard
management
 Disaster management vision of Ghana
focuses on reducing risk, especially
disadvantaged and poor people from
effects of environmental, natural and
human induced hazards. through
coordinating resources of both
 Lack of coordination among the
people associated in the disaster
management plan for which it may
delay or slow the recovery process
 Ghana is affecting by various man-
made disasters such as ethnic
conflicts, war and pollution of water
bodies. The plan is unable to
overcome the consequences of these
disasters due to unavailability of
specific solutions
 The plan is lacking in strategic stock
and disaster management scheme
and funds, because of which it is not
possible to implement it effectively
 The Act 517 of 1996 incorporated in
this plan is lacking in co-coordinating
and regulatory functions
 Due to unavailability of proper rescue
and search mechanism, the recovery
activities of disaster management
plan are affected
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