Building resilience for...
Sri Lanka’s disaster management system is now more geared towards DRR, shifting away from the previous approach of emphasizing relief interventions after disaster events. The government investment on risk reduction and disaster mitigation has shown an increasing trend over the years.
However, there is enough evidence to prove that postdisaster activities have distributional and targeting issues.
Vulnerability maps for droughts, floods, cyclones, landslides, lightning and coastal hazards have been finalized by the DMC, in collaboration with the relevant technical agencies. These are being used at present on pilot basis for project-related activities. However, the high resolution maps, required for planning activities to evaluate disaster risks for specific sites are still not available.
There are gaps in the existing social protection system, particularly in disaster-related social protection schemes. Crop insurance/climate insurance have a key role in this regard, given that agriculture is one of the sectors highly affected by floods, droughts and landslides as highlighted by an International Policy Studies (IPS) study. However, these insurance schemes operate far below their potential.
Resilient development should synergize DRR and climate adaptation at national level. A collaborative mechanism should be in place to coordinate the actions taken under DRR and climate adaptation. DRR should not be a standalone sector in the overall development framework of Sri Lanka. Currently, there are signs of mainstreaming the important aspects into sectoral policies and plans.
DRR aspects should be further strengthened using both physical measures and socio-economic instruments. Meaningful involvement of stakeholders, including the local communities, is a must in designing such interventions. Proper attention should be paid towards the implementation of necessary measures, based on the recovery needs identified by the PDNA and other policy documents.
Enhancing the social protection system to address the medium and long-term recovery needs should be an important element in this regard. To this end, the implementation of an effective disaster insurance mechanism to cover vulnerable sectors has been highlighted by both international initiatives and national policy documents.
Reliable and timely data and information on disasters provide the foundation for many disaster risk management initiatives. It is highly opportune to develop a comprehensive mechanism for sharing data and information among all users. This should be coupled with effective capacity building of data generating agencies.
(This article is based on a chapter written for the recently launched ‘Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2017’ report, IPS’ annual flagship publication)
(Kanchana Wickramasinghe is a Research Economist at the
IPS. To talk to the author, email kanchana@ips.lk. To view this article online and
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